April 11, 1999
PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Notre Dame softball team set a new season record for home runs and head coach Liz Miller grabbed her 800th career win as the Irish swept Rutgers in BIG EAST doubleheader action Saturday. With the 4-2 and 9-1 victories, Notre Dame improved to 25-15 overall, 4-0 in the BIG EAST, while the Scarlet Knights fell to 13-15 overall, 1-3 in the BIG EAST.
In game one, Notre Dame senior Amy Laboe hit her third home run of the season with two outs in the top of the third inning to give the Irish a 1-0 lead. The home run was the team’s 18th of the season, breaking the previous high of 17 set in 1994. In the top of the fourth, the Irish added to their lead with two unearned runs and later advanced the score to 4-0 when Laboe doubled and came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Kris McCleary. Notre Dame pitcher Jennifer Sharron held Rutgers to no runs on two hits until the Scarlet Knights finally got on the board in the sixth on Juliette Brooks’ home run. Then with two outs in the seventh, Rutgers scored another run before Danielle Dolbow was tagged out trying to advance to third on Quyen Tran’s single to end the inning. Sharron, who tallied 11 strikeouts, improved to 9-6 overall with the win and Brooks took the loss, dropping to 10-6.
After recording eight hits in the first game, the Irish continued their offensice success against the Scarlet Knights with nine runs on 10 hits including two home runs by Melanie Alkire and Jennifer Kriech to win 9-1 in five innings. Notre Dame pitcher Angela Bessolo picked up her eighth win of the season after pitching her second straight complete game. The game two victory also was Notre Dame Coach Liz Miller’s 800th career win.
The Irish travel to Villanova Sunday for another BIG EAST doubleheader starting at 11 a.m. EDT.