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Dominican University Athletics

THE OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE OF THE DOMINICAN UNIVERSITY STARS OFFICIAL ATHLETICS SITE OF DOMINICAN UNIVERSITY
Jori Cicale

Softball

Cicale Strikes Out 17 As Softball Wins Third Straight

Jori Cicale (Steger, Ill.) struck out 17 hitters, picking up the complete-game victory, as the Dominican University Stars topped the WPI Engineers 5-3 on Thursday.
Cicale surrendered a leadoff home run in the top the first inning before pitching out of a bases loaded jam with three strikeouts. Then after a 4-hour, 45-minute rain delay, play resumed with the Stars knotting the score at 1-1 in the bottom of the third after Mary Costello (Chicago, Ill.) drew a two-out walk to start a rally. Corinne Zimmerman (Chicago Heights, Ill.) singled before Emily Mahoney (Crystal Lake, Ill.) drove home the tying run with a single of her own.
The Stars then took a 3-1 lead as Mikaela Westbrook (Farmington, Mo.) led off the bottom of the fourth with a solo home run. Gina Palumbo (Northlake, Ill.) followed with a double to deep center and later scored on a two-out single by Kristen Look (Frankfort, Ill.).
The Engineers roared back with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth as Cicale surrendered a leadoff walk followed by a ground rule double to put runners on second and third. Cicale struck out the next hitter for the first out of the inning and then induced a groundout to first, forcing the runners to stay put. However, WPI got a two-out, two-run single from catcher Erin Beaulieu to even the score. Cicale then stopped the bleeding with her 12th strikeout of the ballgame.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Stars scored what proved to be the game-winning runs on a double to left by Costello, scoring #Taylor O’Brien# (Pectonica, Ill.) and Sarah Budz (Orland Park, Ill.) after a costly error by the Engineers’ infield kept the inning alive.
Cicale returned to the circle in the seventh, pitching around an error and a single with three strikeouts to end the threat. 
The win was the first of the season for Cicale, who improves to 1-1 on the season in her third start. The Stars’ junior right-hander pitched around five hits and five walks over seven innings.
Offensively, Costello, Mahoney, and Palumbo banged out two hits apiece with Costello driving in two.
Dominican returns to action later this afternoon, closing out their spring trip with a matchup against the Neumann University Knights in Fort Myers, Fla.
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