Over the weekend, the University of Rhode Island softball team got swept by Loyola University Chicago, then responded with a victory over Bryant University on Wednesday.

After picking up a 5-4 win against Providence College on March 26, URI was looking to take its momentum into the weekend and gain some ground in the Atlantic 10 Conference standings.

The series against Loyola Chicago kicked off with a doubleheader on Saturday. In the first inning of game one, the Ramblers put up four runs to jump out to an early lead. Fourth-year Emily Power doubled in the top of the fourth to drive in a run and cut the Ramblers’ lead to three. However, Loyola responded with two more runs in the bottom of the fourth to make the score 6-1.

Second-year Avery Vale-Cruz came in and pitched 2.1 scoreless innings for the Rams, but the Rhode Island offense went dormant the rest of the game and dropped the first game of the series.

“The thing that’s really hard right now, that people don’t see, is that there’s a little added layer of pressure on our pitchers right now,” URI Head Coach Mike Coutts said. “Because we don’t score a lot of runs, they might be feeling like they need to be perfect.”

In the second game of the doubleheader, third-year Ashley Hibbard was in the pitching circle to start the game for the Rams. Despite her 1-9 record, Hibbard has the second lowest earned run average on the team at 4.82, only behind Vale-Cruz, who has a 4.12 ERA. Hibbard started off strong, throwing three scoreless innings before giving up a pair of runs in the fourth.

First-year Brooke Geary came in relief and closed the game without allowing Loyola to add on to its lead. However, the pair of runs would be all Loyola needed to get the win, as Rhody got shut out the rest of the game.

URI was looking to prevent a sweep on Sunday and leave the ‘Windy City’ with a win. First-year Julianna Torres singled in the top of the second to score two runs, which gave the Rams a 2-1 lead. But the lead was short-lived, as Vale-Cruz got into trouble in the bottom of the fourth, and Loyola would reclaim the lead after scoring four runs.

Geary was called in to pitch the fifth inning to try to keep the deficit at three, but a leadoff single and a hit by pitch to start the inning created trouble as Loyola tacked on another run. With the bases loaded, first-year Alli Pawlowicz hit a grand slam, which ended the game due to the mercy rule. URI only scored a total of three runs in the series.

“It was definitely a tough series for sure,” Vale-Cruz said. “I think in situations like that it is very hard, but very important to take away the positives. I think we had really good moments; there were good moments of timely hitting, moving runners over and getting down [sacrifice] bunts.”

Rhody was able to get back in the win column on Wednesday, as they exploded for 10 runs and 11 hits in a 10-8 win over Bryant. First-year Katie Knarr was a huge contributor to the offensive explosion, as she drove in five runs.

The Rams will continue A-10 play this weekend with a series at home against Saint Joseph’s University.

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