photo courtesy of Mark Campbell

Game 1 Boxscore
Game 2 Boxscore

NEWARK, Del. -- Blue Hen pitchers Anne Marie Pagano (at right) and Amanda Stacevicz each fired shutouts to lead the University of Delaware softball team to a pair of 2-0 wins over Rider Wednesday afternoon at chilly Delaware Field.

Delaware improved to 14-14 following the two victories and has now won 17 of the last 18 games with the Broncs. The Blue Hens opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning in the opener as Quinn Megargel walked, went to second on a wild pitch, and scored on a two-out single to leftfield by Kim Ovittore.

UD added an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth when Megargel reached on an error by Broncs shortstop Katy Mills with two outs, stole second, and scored on a single up the middle by Michelle Grap.

Pagano, who improved to 9-6, would make the lead stand up as she allowed just two hits and struck out six batters en route to her second shutout of the season. Broncs starter Kelsey Krisch allowed two runs, one earned, on four hits to drop to 2-7 on the year.

The Blue Hens again struck first in the first inning of the nightcap when Megargel led off with a triple to rightfield and scored on an infield single by Amanda Nyisztor. Delaware added a run in the third as Grap led off with a single, went to second on a groundout by Ovittore, and scored on a single to centerfield by Michelle Kenney.

Rider, which is now 9-25 on the year, had runners on second and third with two outs in the sixth, but Stacevicz got Mills to ground out to shortstop to escape the jam.

Stacevicz recorded her second shutout of the year and improved to 5-7 after allowing six hits and striking out eight batters. Rachael Matreale gave up two earned runs on eight hits while falling to 5-11 for Rider.

Megargel, who went 1 for 2 with two runs scored in the opener, was 1 for 1 with a run scored and three walks in the second game. Nyisztor and Stacevicz each had two hits in the nightcap for Delaware.

The Blue Hens return home Thursday to host Binghamton in a single game beginning at 2 p.m.