PHOENIX – It was a dominant road performance by the Roughriders on Tuesday afternoon in the valley where the Yavapai College softball team swept the GateWay Community College Geckos with final scores of 8-1 and 13-5. 

"I am happy that the girls got two wins on the road," Head Coach Kali Pugh said after the sweep. "It's a great group to be around and I am proud of them and their continuous hard work."

On the season, YC improves to 8-4 in conference contests and 8-11 overall. 

Game One
Freshman pitcher Samara Romero tossed another gem in the first ballgame of the day with her lone blemish being a Gecko solo homer in the bottom of the first. At the end of the game, however, Romero's stat line showed dominance: seven innings pitched with four hits, one run, no walks and 11 strikeouts en route to her fifth win of the season. 

With Romero holding down the Gecko bats, it was just a matter of when the Roughrider offense was going to come through and it started in the top of the fourth inning when sophomore infielder Torie Au led off with her seventh homer of the season to tie things up at 1-1. 

One inning later, the Roughriders put the contest on ice with a six-spot in the top of the fifth. In the inning, freshman infielder Hayden McGuire and sophomore catcher Amanda Pay each singled with the bases loaded, before sophomore catcher Brina Lankford brought home a run with a sacrifice fly to give the Roughriders a 4-1 lead. 

After the sacrifice, the Roughriders got a two-out RBI single from sophomore outfielder Meghan Kelly and two-out two-run single from sophomore infielder Maritza Celaya to extend the advantage to 7-1. 

In the top of the seventh, Kelly notched another RBI single to bring the game to its eventual final score of 8-1. 

Kelly led the Roughriders at the plate in game one with three hits while Pay, Au and Lankford each had two. Celaya, McGuire, freshman infielder Brianna Baca and freshman outfielder Emmersyn Villa each finished with one hit as well. 

Game Two
The momentum from the end of the first game carried over to the beginning of the second game as the Roughrider bats scored four in the first, three in the second, five in the third and one in the fourth for a total of 13 runs to put the run-rule into effect. 

Despite the Geckos pushing one across the plate in the bottom of the fifth, YC clung to its eight-run lead and finished the game early to clinch the game-two victory and the sweep. 

In the top of the first, Au launched a three-run shot to give YC a 3-0 lead while tallying her eighth bomb of the season. Later in the inning, Kelly added an RBI single for a 4-0 lead. 

In the bottom of the inning, the Geckos matched YC with a four-spot of their own, however, YC added three runs in the top of the second on an RBI single from McGuire and two-run homer off the bat of Pay, her first of the season. 

Now leading 7-4, Villa launched her third homer of the season in the top of the third, a three-run shot to give YC a 10-4 lead. Four batters later, Lankford singled in two more and YC put the run-rule into effect with a 12-4 advantage. 

Freshman outfielder Ivannya Perez singled home a run for good measure in the top of the fourth to give Yavapai a 13-4 lead. GateWay would get the aforementioned run back in the fifth to bring the game to its final score of 13-5. 

Inside the circle in game two, sophomore pitcher Abbie Bean gave the Roughriders some stellar relief pitching as she tossed 3.2 innings of one run-ball with just two hits allowed while striking out two. 

At the plate, Au and Pay each tallied three hits while McGuire, Kelly and Perez each finished with two. Baca, Villa, Lankford and Celaya each finished with one hit in game two as each Roughrider that recorded a plate appearance finished with at least one hit. 

Up Next
The Roughriders are back in action on Tuesday, March 26, at home where they will host the Mesa Community College Thunderbirds with first pitch of the doubleheader set for noon.