Coming into Wednesday night’s contest against Siena, there hadn’t been a day this season in which all three of Syracuse’s pitchers clicked on the mound.

They chose a good night to step up.

The Orange’s pitching trio of Angie Sagnelli, Brittany Gardner and Jenna Caira combined to toss two shutouts in a doubleheader against the Saints, on a night SU struggled both from the plate and in the field.

Syracuse (28-14 overall, 11-5 Big East) won the first game, 2-0. Shortly after that, it took the field again and defeated the Saints (11-24), 5-0.

Heading into the doubleheader, SU head coach Leigh Ross was merely hoping for a strong performance versus a weaker opponent prior to this weekend’s game against the top two teams in the Big East – DePaul and Notre Dame.

But aside from the dominance on the mound, Ross wasn’t happy with Syracuse’s overall play against Siena.

‘Offensively and defensively, we were just going through the motions,’ Ross said. ‘I told the team before the game started that good teams always play up to a certain level no matter who they play, and I don’t think we did that today.’

At the same time, Ross and the rest of the team can’t deny it: they took care of business.

‘Basically, we just wanted to work on things and tune up before Notre Dame and DePaul,’ Caira said. ‘We got the job done.’

‘I’m glad that we got the wins, but I don’t think that they were pretty wins for us,’ Ross said.

Sagnelli started the evening for the Orange with three and one-third shutout innings of work, but left the game in the fourth inning with the bases loaded and one out – a product of lackadaisical fielding, Ross said.

‘Angie did really well, but our defense wasn’t helping her,’ Ross said.

Gardner entered the game next. Despite yielding two runs in a third of an inning her last time out, she set the tempo for the next nine innings. The junior struck out two Saints to finish the inning and left the bases loaded.

‘I talked with Amy (Kelley) before I went in and she was like, ‘You don’t have to worry about anything. You don’t have to play around too much. Don’t worry about anything else,” Gardner said.

Kelley, the senior catcher who played in the doubleheader despite suffering from a broken nose over the weekend, led the team offensively in the first game, going 2-for-3. Freshman Lacey Kohl led the Orange at the plate throughout the nightcap, going 2-for-3, including the first home run of her career and three RBIs.

Gardner (8-7) and Caira (14-6) combined for a staggering nine consecutive innings of no-hit ball, stretching into the sixth inning of game two. Over the course of the nine frames, Gardner amassed eight strikeouts in fewer than four innings of work.

Caira and her signature mouthpiece emerged at the outset of the second game, as the freshman ace brought yet another no-hitter into the sixth inning.

If not for a close call at first base thanks to a perfectly placed bunt, Caira would have taken home her third no-hitter of the year, but for the Ontario native, that wasn’t the most important aspect of the evening.

‘Angie and Brit have been working so hard in practice, and they want the ball just as much as I do, so it was good to see us all play well today,’ Caira said. ‘And as for the no-hitter, it doesn’t matter to me, it’s not a big deal. We got the win, and that’s what we were looking for.’

aolivero@syr.edu

Published on April 22, 2009 at 12:00 pm