Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
KUTZTOWN, Pa. – Stef Kerbacher scored the winning run of game two on a wild pitch with two outs in the top of the eighth inning to help No. 22 West Chester to a 1-0 victory and a split of its PSAC East softball doubleheader on the road against Kutztown on a balmy Friday afternoon at North Campus Field. Kutztown captured the opener, 3-2.
West Chester (23-7, 8-2 PSAC East) maintains its one-game lead on Kutztown (27-10, 7-3) in the Eastern Division standings with the split, also earning a split of the season series at two games apiece.
Brooke Muth and Kerbacher hit back-to-back singles with one out in the eighth to get things started for the Golden Rams. Mandy Gerhart was inserted as a pinch runner for Muth. Erin MacNamee then singled to right, but Gerhart was cut down at the plate trying to score from second base. Kerbacher and MacNamee each moved up on the throw to put runners at second and third with two outs and Evelyn Anderson at the plate.
Kutztown pitcher Mary Glomb (8-5) then threw a wild pitch that allowed Kerbacher to race across with the game-winning run. Anderson followed with a fly out to centerfield to end the inning.
Missy Schwartz (7-0) completed her two-hit shutout masterpiece in the bottom of the eighth, allowing just a two-out single before retiring the side for the win. She walked one and struck out one, facing just two batters over the minimum.
The Golden Rams managed just four hits off Glomb, who went the distance inside the circle for the Bears. She walked one and struck out six. Glomb took a one-hit shutout into extra innings before West Chester’s bats finally came alive to push across the deciding run.
Kutztown scored an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth inning to break a 2-2 tie and steal a win in game one of the doubleheader. The heartbreaking run came right after West Chester had knotted things up in their half of the sixth.
Trailing 2-0, MacNamee and Anderson each singled with one out. Sam Ingersoll followed with a RBI single that plated MacNamee and moving Anderson to second. After a fielders’ choice cut down Anderson at third, the Golden Rams pinch ran Megan Rupert for Ingersoll. Schwartz then singled home Rupert for the tying run.
Muth (9-5) suffered the loss, throwing all six innings. She allowed three runs, two of them earned, on five hits and struck out four. Muth did not walk a batter. Kaitlyn Arbogast (17-5) picked up the win for Kutztown, throwing a complete-game six-hitter. She allowed two runs and struck out eight while walking just one.
West Chester travels to Mansfield on Saturday for a non-league doubleheader against the Mountaineers. When the PSAC re-aligned itself into three divisions, Mansfield was moved from the East to the Central. First pitch of game one will be at 1 p.m.
