’Cuse sweeps RU to put Knights in hole

Time is running out for the Rutgers softball team.

It preferred a sweep of Syracuse and arguably needed a split.

The Scarlet Knights earned neither yesterday, sloppily dropping both games of its home doubleheader against the Orange to fall into seventh place in the Big East.

Syracuse (19-24, 7-9) lit up all three Knights pitchers, despite owning the worst batting average in conference play.

“We didn’t match up well with them,” said head coach Jay Nelson. “They don’t hit for average. They hit for power.”

That much is clear. The Orange put together three home runs and nine extra-base hits on the afternoon. They teed off on freshman righthander Dresden Maddox and senior righthander Abbey Houston for 11 earned runs in only four combined innings of work in Game 2.

“I definitely want to give their hitters credit. They are a good team,” said senior catcher Kaci Madden. “But they weren’t anything special really, and I think that a couple mistakes on our pitchers’ parts kind of made the difference in the day.”

Nelson said he needs to review the game tape to pinpoint any control issues but does believe his pitchers could have done a better job of mixing up speeds to keep the Orange off-balance.

“It seemed like we also didn’t have too much of a differential in our speeds,” Nelson said. “We tended to throw the same speed all the time.”

Scoring in four of five frames, Syracuse used a six-run fourth to pull away from Rutgers (25-21, 6-10) and win via the mercy rule after five, 11-3.

The Knights offense could find only two earned runs on five hits off righthander Stacy Kuwik.

RBI singles in the second and fourth innings from freshman shortstop Melanie Slowinski and junior outfielder Loren Williams, respectively, were the highlight of Rutgers’ run production.

“I don’t think [Kuwik] threw hard enough to throw the ball by us, but I think she did a good job of keeping us off-balance,” Williams said. “She got us to swing at the pitches she wanted us to hit, and I think that as an offense we didn’t have our best day at the plate. But honestly, I think it could only get better from here.”

The Knights got off to a rocky start in Game 1, committing three errors — as many as they had hits.

A two-out throwing error by Slowinski in the top of the first set the tone, as Syracuse would plate an unearned run to take a 1-0 lead it would not surrender.

Two doubles by the Orange in the third would extend the lead, and in the fourth they broke the game open off sophomore lefthander Alyssa Landrith, winning, 6-0.

The Vacaville, Calif., native could not compensate for her defense’s three errors in the contest, surrendering a two-out three-run blast in the frame. She finished with a line of nine hits, four earned runs, four strikeouts and one walk in five innings.

After conducting two practices last weekend to crack down on mental errors, the Knights believe game simulations simply were not enough.

“It is disappointing, but it’s kind of a consequence from having a whole week off,” Madden said. “When you’re playing every single week, sometimes almost every other day, you’re able to eliminate those errors. And so since this was our first game back, those things happen, but it was frustrating. This deep in the season, those kinds of plays shouldn’t happen.”

On the other side, the Knights fared even worse the first time around against Kuwik, who went all seven innings, allowing only three hits and one walk.

Now in the midst of a five-game conference skid, Rutgers is looking for answers.

“I don’t know. It could be that we had too long of a layoff,” Nelson said. “I’m not really worried with our situation. I think we’ve played well through the season, and if we just get it back to what we were doing earlier, we’ll be fine.”

For updates on the Rutgers softball team, follow Greg Johnson on Twitter @Greg_P_Johnson. For general Rutgers sports updates, follow @TargumSports.