Rachel Tilford stood waiting in the on-deck circle for an opportunity to resurrect her power numbers. She watched Amy Kelley foul a pitch almost directly behind her, and right on line to hit Tilford.

Tilford swung and hit Kelley’s foul ball, which then landed on the field of play creating a scary situation into an eruption of laughter inside the Syracuse dugout.

‘I said (to my teammates), ‘That would be my only hit of the day,” Tilford said.

Thankfully for the Orange it wouldn’t be.

Nine innings later, Tilford hit another ball resulting in another eruption by her teammates. This time, though, she was in the batter’s box, and the ball landed over the fence. Tilford’s walk-off home run with one out in the ninth gave SU a 1-0 win in the first game of the doubleheader against St. John’s.

The momentum from the second walk-off home run in Syracuse history bled over into the second game, another SU win, 2-1.

Syracuse had opportunities in the first game to score but couldn’t come up with the key hit when it needed it most. In the first and third innings, SU managed to get runners to third with two outs but couldn’t advance the runner the final 90 feet.

‘We had some hits here and there, it just wasn’t the right time,’ Syracuse head coach Leigh Ross said. ‘…My general overall feeling was why aren’t we hitting the ball? Pitching is on. Defense was good now we have to pull that other part together.’

It took nine innings for the offense to finally come alive. Tilford was 0-for-3 on the day but revived the offense, along with her power numbers. Tilford finished last season as the team leader in home runs with 10. Through 38 games this year the outfielder was tied for sixth on the team with one home run.

In the second inning, Tilford thought she put one over the fence, but Red Storm left fielder Bionka King made the catch on the warning track. In the ninth, Tilford had the same feeling but wasn’t going to take any chances.

‘I thought it was out, yeah,’ Tilford said. ‘I thought the one I hit out to the warning track earlier was out, too, so I was like, just run the bases and if it’s not out at least I’ll have double.’

It took one clutch hit in game one, and in game two Syracuse needed two clutch hits but almost didn’t get the second.

Hallie Gibbs stepped to the plate in the fifth, and just like Tilford in game one, she had had a rough day at the plate. Gibbs was 0-for-6 with two strikeouts on the entire day.

It looked as though Gibbs was going to be 0-for-7 as her swing resulted in a weak pop up to the first baseman in foul territory. Gibbs trotted down the line slamming her bat to the ground in disgust. The ball, though, deflected off Kacee Cox’s glove and fell to the ground. With a second chance, Gibbs made the Red Storm pay for their mishap smacking a double that allowed Chanel Roehner to score the game-winning run.

‘I would’ve been really upset if I didn’t come through for the team,’ Gibbs said. ‘I had an opportunity earlier, and I didn’t do anything with it. I just let that all go and finally got a hit.’

Tilford’s and Gibbs’ late-inning heroics overshadowed dominant pitching performances by both Roehner and Brittany Gardner. The duo combined for 16 strikeouts, the most of any in one day this season.

Gardner allowed a first-inning run to cross the plate but shut down the Red Storm thereafter, not allowing a hit after the second and retiring the last 10 batters of game two. Roehner set the tone for the day not allowing a run and striking out 10 while not rendering a walk. At one point in the game, the senior retired 12 in a row. Roenher pitched all nine innings and was going to come back out if Tilford hadn’t gone yard.

But make no mistake; there wasn’t a happier person in the dugout than Roehner that there would be no 10th inning.

‘I was like, ‘Thank the Lord,” Roehner said. ”Please don’t make me go out there for the 10th. I will if I have to, but I am exhausted. My quads hurt. I got beamed in the shoulder, my left shoulder’s hurt, my right shoulder’s sore, my finger’s bleeding. God I just don’t want to pitch.”

mibonner@syr.edu

Published on April 20, 2008 at 12:00 pm