Rowan softball kept their winning streak alive last weekend when they swept both their doubleheaders against Ramapo College of New Jersey and Kean University, improving their record to 17-4.

Defeating Ramapo 3-2 in extra innings and 10-5 on Saturday, and Kean 6-1 and 4-3 on Sunday, increased their streak to 14 games. It also kept them undefeated in New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) play and on top of the standings.

Like most of their games this season, offensively these wins were a team effort, with 10 players recording at least one hit during this four-game stretch. One of the players who was a big part in Rowan’s offensive performance was junior left fielder Morgan Zane. 

Zane recorded six hits, eight RBIs, and her first home run of the season in these four games. Despite her own strong performance, she credited the Profs’ success to the whole team’s performance. 

“It was definitely a big weekend. It was really exciting to see we came out and pulled four team wins,” Zane said. “It definitely wasn’t all on one person, it was something that we all worked [on] together and manufactured together.”

This is something that coach Kim Wilson also noticed, not only for this past weekend, but for the season overall. 

“We have been getting good production and it changes every game, it is not the same people every week,” Wilson said. “So I think it is hard for teams to prepare for us because one week it could be Sonia [Sharma], it could be Payton [MacNair], it could be somebody coming off the bench. We’ve been very lucky in some ways but also that is what we work to do, put anyone in a situation where they’ll be successful.” 

Team production and support was really key this weekend, especially when they got into tight situations, something that Zane pointed out.

“I feel like a lot of good softball is played primarily with having good supporters behind you and keeping high energy and keeping the momentum high,” Zane said. “Even if something doesn’t necessarily go our way — like when Kean came and tied the second game — that wasn’t necessarily our plan but it’s how things ended up and we kept the energy high. It definitely pushes us through the tough parts and helps us enjoy the high parts.”

Another tight situation the team was in was being down going into the bottom of the eighth during their first game against Ramapo. While this was a new challenge for them this season, Wilson said practicing for these situations was how they were able to pull through it.

“We haven’t had that many close games recently. So it is something that we practice but we haven’t been pressured a whole lot, so going into it with a runner on second, I was glad we were able to come back and finish the game,” Wilson said. “I think overall it definitely showed our maturity even though we are a fairly young team, and they took care of business when they needed to.”

It wasn’t only the offensive that took care of business, though. Senior pitcher Emily August pitched 17 innings this weekend, giving up only two earned runs, earning three wins and leaving the weekend with a 0.84 ERA. 

Wilson talked about August’s impressive performance in these games. 

“She’s been doing a great job. She’s pretty stoic on the mound and just has been doing everything we’ve asked of her,” Wilson said. “She’s just showing her leadership on the mound and actually off the mound also, so we’re pretty confident in her.”

Zane echoed this statement, noting how important it is for the offensive to have trust in their pitcher. 

“She was amazing,” Zane said. “She was dealing on the mound, just getting things done when she had to, and coming up in tight situations when we needed her the most. We have a lot of trust in her, we really do.”

After this successful weekend, Rowan headed towards the end of the regular season as they faced The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) in a doubleheader, a team right behind them in the NJAC standings, on Tuesday.

Rowan ended up splitting their doubleheader with TCNJ, losing the first game 0-2 but winning the second game 8-2. The team’s record now stands at 19-5 for the season and 13-1 in the conference. 

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