PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers softball returns to the win column on Tuesday afternoon with a 6-1 victory over Lehigh in nonconference action on a blustery day at the RU Softball Complex.

The win snapped a seven-game slide as LA Matthews belted out her fourth home run of the year, Ella Harrison fanned eight Mountain Hawks and Laurelai DePew picked up the save.

Rutgers 6, Lehigh 1

• Graduate student LA Matthews went yard for her fourth home run of the season and finished the game 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs.
• Senior Jillian Anderson went 2-for-4 with a run scored and run batted in.
• Freshman Baileigh Burtis' two-run base hit in the third gave RU the lead for good.
• Freshmen Riley Hwang and Addie Osborne both collected doubles with Osborne plating twice in the win.
• Redshirt sophomore Bailey Briggs added both batted in and scored, while junior Siera Hoekstra also added a run in the victory.
• Right-handed freshman Ella Harrison moved up 11-12 on the year in the win going 5.0 innings with eight strikeouts and no earned runs in five innings worth of work. Senior Laurelai DePew earned her second save of the season tossing the final two innings allowing just one hit and one walk.

• LA Matthews put Rutgers up 1-0 two batters into the contest with a solo shot over the wall into left center.]
• Lehigh, however, tied up the game with their next trip to the plate. The top of the second saw the Mountain Hawks capitalize on a misplay at first for Martin to score and knot the score at 1-1. Martin opened Lehigh's at-bat with a walk and advanced on a ground out to third before scoring on the error.
• Baileigh Burtis gave the Scarlet Knights the lead of good in the third. Jillian Anderson and Bailey Briggs both singled to come aboard and scored on Burtis' single to left center for a 3-1 RU edge.
• Addie Osborne and Jillian Anderson helped Rutgers extend its lead to 4-1 in the fourth. Osborne walked and stole second before coming home on Anderson's base hit to left center.
• RU added two more in the sixth. With the bases loaded, Matthews drove in Osborne while the bases were still loaded as Bailey Briggs walked in Siera Hoekstra for the game's final margin.

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