Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
WEST CHESTER, Pa. – Steph Denlinger hit two home runs in game one, accounting for all three Kutztown runs, and the visitors scored twice in the top of the seventh to break a tie as the 12th-ranked Golden Bears scored identical 3-1 decisions in a PSAC East doubleheader sweep of host West Chester Tuesday afternoon.
West Chester (21-9, 3-3 PSAC East) plated a run in the bottom of the sixth inning of game two to knot the score at 1-1. However, Kutztown (32-6, 8-0) finally broke through on freshman righty Samantha Soprano, who walked two batters, to score twice in the top half of the seventh and get away with a sweep.
Megan Harbaugh singled in the gap in right-center, scoring Erin MacNamee from second base with the tying run in the home half of the sixth.
Denlinger then singled deep in the hole at shortstop with two outs to score the go-ahead run for the Bears in the seventh. Krista Cameron later singled up the middle scoring Maria Schiavo, who had walked earlier. Cameron hit a solo home run in the fourth inning to account for Kutztown’s other tally.
Soprano (9-5) scattered seven hits over 6.2 innings, allowing three runs, walking five and striking out two. Shannon Padula came on in the seventh to stop the bleeding.
Padula (12-4), who set the school record for career wins on Monday in West Chester’s doubleheader sweep at Millersville, went the distance in the first game and suffered the loss. She gave up 11 hits and struck out four.
Denlinger hit a two-run shot in the third, her 15th home run of the season, and added a solo shot, No. 16 on the year, in the fifth for the only blemishes against Padula.
West Chester got one of those runs back in the third when MacNamee hit a two-out triple to right-center plating Stef Kerbacher, who had reached on a throwing error by Kutztown’s third baseman.
Bears ace Kaitlyn Arbogast (16-3) picked up the win in game one inside the circle. She yielded five hits and just the one unearned run while striking out seven.
West Chester travels to Shippensburg on Wednesday to try to make up a league doubleheader that had been rained out twice last week.
