Box Score
KUTZTOWN, Pa. – Erin MacNamee went 2-for-4 and Meghan Halberstadt beat out an infield hit that scored West Chester’s only run as the 11th-ranked Kutztown Bears downed visiting West Chester University, 5-1, in the first game of the Atlantic Region-2 NCAA Division II Softball Tournament Friday afternoon at North Campus Field on the campus of Kutztown University.
West Chester (28-19) falls into the losers’ bracket of the double-elimination tournament and will play Bloomsburg (34-10), a 2-1 loser to West Virginia Wesleyan in the other first-round contest at Kutztown, on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in the second game of the day. Kutztown (44-9-1) advances to the winners’ bracket and will play West Virginia Wesleyan at 11 a.m.
Kutztown, the second seed in the Atlantic Region, scored three runs in the top of the first inning off West Chester ace Shannon Padula (17-12). The left-hander hit a batter and walked three during the fateful first.
However, Padula settled down after that and allowed just two more runs. She yielded 10 hits and walked five while walking two in six innings of work.
The Golden Rams mustered just seven hits off of a pair of Golden Bears’ pitchers. West Chester strung together four consecutive hits in the fourth inning to chase starter Katlin Arbogast. Hoch (17-2) came on and went the rest of the way to pick up the win.
Arbogast lasted 3.1 innings, scattered five hits and allowed one run. Hoch pitched the rest of the 3.2 scoreless innings and surrendered just two hits and struck out one.
Ingersoll hit a one-out double to right-center in the fourth to get West Chester’s only rally started. Kelsey Rapp came on to pinch run for Ingersoll, and Megan Harbaugh singled to center, pushing Rapp to third. Mandy Gerhart ran for Harbaugh just before Halberstadt hit a ball deep in the hole at shortstop and beat the throw to first. Rapp scored on the play and Harbaugh moved up to second.
Kate Kmiencinski then singled to right to load the bases with still one out. Kristin McCoy lined a shot into center field, which was caught by Maria Schiavo, who fired a strike to the plate, gunning down Gerhart, who tried to tag and score on the flyout.
