ROCHESTER, N.Y. - On Friday evening, softball swept Russell Sage in the last regular season games of the year. Nazareth's two wins puts the 2025 team in the record book tied for the most wins in a season at 20.

With the victories, Nazareth's record improves to 20-13 overall and 14-8 in the conference, while Sage drops to 16-23 overall and 12-10 in conference play.

Nazareth Wins 7-3
The first game started off quiet from an offensive standpoint, each team only seeing seven batters total in the first two innings. In the top of the third Morgan Russo opened the scoring up with a three-run-homer following a walk from Avery Zembek and a bunt-for-single by Julia Maciag.

The score would remain 3-0 until the top of the sixth when the Golden Flyers put up another run on a Sarah Ferruzza solo home-run.

In the top of the seventh, the score was still 4-0 when three Golden Flyers hit consecutive home runs, Russo whacking her second of the game, followed by one from Ashley Bell, and one by Kaijah Alexander.

The Gators tried to fight back in the bottom of the seventh with three runs, but could not come back from the deficit, ending the first game at a score of 7-3.

Zembek threw the full seven innings for Nazareth, not allowing any earned runs while striking out four batters.

Fun fact; each run scored by Nazareth in game one was a result of a home run.

Nazareth Clinches 5th Seed
The second game started much quicker, Nazareth putting up two runs in the top of the first. Hitting for the Golden Flyers in the inning was Haleigh Suitor with a single, while scoring for Nazareth was Russo and Bell.

Sage brought the game back within one at the bottom of the first.

Scoring then went quiet until the bottom of the fourth when the Gators put up two more runs to go up 3-2.

Nazareth answered right away with a four-run inning in the top of the fifth. Hitting was Knapp, Russo, and Alexander each with singles, while Knapp, Maciag, Russo, and Bell scored for the Golden Flyers.

Sage then tied it up in the bottom of the sixth with three more runs.

Tied at six, Nazareth scored one run in the top of the seventh. Russo started it off with a double, and then was moved to third on a sac bunt by Bell. Alexander then had a sac fly to score Russo.

The Golden Flyers then held Sage scoreless in the bottom of the inning to secure the win and the fifth seed for the Empire 8 Championship tournament.

Madison Hicks started the game in the circle and threw 5.2 innings, tallying one strikeout and only allowing two earned runs. Zembek was in relief and threw 1.1 innings. Credited with the win, Zembek added one more strikeout against five batters faced.

The Golden Flyers will host Elmira college on April 6th at 4 p.m. in the first round of the Empire 8 Championsip tournament. The link to the Empire 8 Championship tournament schedule and more information can be found here.