FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Geneva College softball team used a strong pitching effort on Monday in Florida to pick up two victories on the opening day of the season for the Golden Tornadoes.  Geneva shut out Brooklyn 8-0 in five innings in the first game, and the women followed that up with a 7-3 defeat of Rockford in game two of the day.

Senior McKenzie Rapp got the start in the circle in game one against Brooklyn, and the offense gave her some immediate run support in the top of the first.  Junior Faith Bonar drove home junior Kyra Wilcox with a single, and later in the inning senior Justine Robbins scored on a successful double steal.

Rapp worked out of some trouble in the bottom of the first inning, keeping the Bulldogs off the board, and the Golden Tornado offense broke the game open in the top of the third.

Junior Molly Shelley led off the third inning with a single, and she promptly stole second and third base.  Wilcox followed with a walk and then stole second, and senior Lexi Zanic followed with an RBI-single to drive in Shelley.  Zanic kept the running game going with a steal of second, and Bonar delivered another RBI-single to bring home Wilcox.  Zanic later scored on another successful double steal, and senior Payton James drove in the final run of the inning with a single.  Through the first three frames, Geneva stole eight bases.

Geneva added to its lead in the top of the fifth inning.  Senior Mallie Ruscitti and freshman Mia Yenges both scored runs, with junior Aliya Ottaviani delivering an RBI-single in the rally to wrap up the scoring.

Senior Alena Campbell pitched the bottom of the fifth to close out the shutout victory.  Rapp earned the victory with four innings of scoreless work, giving up just three hits while striking out three.

Offensively, Shelley and Zanic each contributed two hits, two stolen bases and a run.  Bonar added two hits and two RBIs, while Wilcox and Ruscitti each scored two runs.

In game two of the day against Rockford, senior Sophia Tvaroch got the start in the circle, and the Golden Tornadoes gave her some early run support in the bottom of the first when Shelley led off with a single, again stole both second and third base, and then came into score on a single from Wilcox.

Rockford answered with a run in the top of the second to pull even, but the Golden Tornadoes put together a big inning in the bottom of the third, with the help of a couple errors by Rockford.

Freshman Keira Rodu led off the third with a single, followed by another single from Shelley.  Both would come around to score on an RBI-grounder from Zanic that she reached on a throwing error by the Regents.  Robbins doubled home Zanic, and Robbins later scored in the inning.  Ottaviani and senior Madison Rapp also reached and scored in the inning, wrapping up the 6-run inning. 

That was plenty of offense for the Golden Tornado pitchers.  Tvaroch pitched four impressive innings, giving up just three hits and one run, while striking out nine to earn the victory.  Senior Jorja Koerner added two innings of scoreless relief.

Shelley led the offense with two hits, two runs and two stolen bases.  Rodu also added two hits, while scoring a run.

Geneva will return to action again tomorrow with two more games.  The women open the day with a 9:00 a.m. contest against Drew, followed by a game against Saint Joseph (CT) at 11:00 a.m.