Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
WEST CHESTER, Pa. – Kelsey Rapp’s two-run bunt single in the bottom of the sixth inning of game two lifted host West Chester to a 5-4 victory and a split of its PSAC doubleheader with No. 24 Kutztown at sun-drenched South Campus Softball Complex Thursday afternoon. Kutztown won game one, 6-4.
West Chester (11-5, 1-1 PSAC East) ended a three-game losing streak on the year as well as putting a stop to an 18-game personal slide against Kutztown (16-8, 1-1), dating back to 2005. It was the Golden Rams’ first win over a nationally ranked program since a victory over No. 8 Bloomsburg in 2008.
“It’s a big win for our program,” head coach Diane Lokey said. “We finally won that big game. (The players) are starting to believe that they are a good team and that they can win big games.”
Trailing 4-3 in the sixth, Rapp stepped to the plate with one out and runners at second and third against All-PSAC hurler Kaitlin Arbogast. Her hard bunt to the right side of the pitching circle got past the charging infielders, allowing both Brooke Muth and Stef Kerbacher to race home with the winning runs. Muth doubled to lead off the frame, and following a ground out back to the pitcher, Kerbacher bunted for a base hit to third base and charged on to second when nobody was covering the bag.
Kutztown’s top three hitters went down in order in the top of the seventh as freshman right-hander Missy Schwartz finished out a complete game with her first college win. Outside of a four-run third, Schwartz was masterful, retiring 14 of the last 15 hitters in game two.
“Missy is a gamer,” first baseman Megan Harbaugh said. “That seventh inning was the perfect opportunity for her to step up and show this team what she can do and that she can handle those types of situations. Her first college win over a nationally ranked team – that’s pretty exciting.”
“Missy shut down (Wayne State) her last time out,” Lokey added. “This win just helped boost her confidence even more. Now, the coaching staff has that same confidence in her because she told us that she was ready and that she wanted the ball in game two.”
Katie Kmiecinski hit a two-run single in the bottom of the first to put West Chester on top initially, 2-0. The Golden Rams responded to Kutztown’s four-spot in the third with one of their own on a double by MacNamee.
Muth, Rapp and Evelyn Anderson each finished with a pair of hits in the nightcap. Schwartz surrendered four runs on eight hits, walked one and struck out two.
Kutztown used a two-out, three-run rally in the top of the fifth inning to steal a win in the opener. Maria Isgro hit a RBI double to left-center field, and Krista Tedjeske followed with a two-run blast to the same part of the park that erased a 4-3 deficit at the time and propelled the Golden Bears to the win.
Harbaugh homered to left to lead off the second inning for West Chester after receiving new life at the plate when Kutztown’s right fielder dropped a foul ball down the line one pitch before Harbaugh’s slam. Sam Ingersoll then plated another run in the third with a single to center as the Rams capitalized once again on a Bears’ miscue in the field to score an unearned run.
The bottom of the order then came through again for West Chester in the fourth when the Golden Rams scored twice to take its 4-3 lead. Kerbacher singled deep in the hole at short to score Muth, who had walked with one out. Then, Rapp hit a sacrifice bunt that scored Erin MacNamee with the go-ahead run after Kerbacher’s single had tied the game.
Ingersoll finished game one 2-for-3 with a RBI. Muth (4-4) suffered the loss in the circle for the Golden Rams. She pitched all seven innings, yielding five earned runs on 10 hits, walking two and striking out six.
Arbogast (11-5) got the win in the opener, throwing a complete game while allowing four runs, two of the earned, on six hits, walking one and striking out five.
West Chester steps out of league play for a doubleheader at Holy Family on Sunday, before returning home Tuesday to face Shippensburg in a PSAC East doubleheader at 2 p.m.
