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WEST CHESTER, Pa. - Jill Murray’s two-run double in the bottom of the eighth inning of game one led host West Chester to a non-league softball doubleheader sweep over visiting Chestnut Hill on an overcast and chilly Sunday afternoon.
West Chester (17-6) has now won six in a row and 12 of its last 13 as the Golden Rams head into PSAC East play this coming weekend against national power Kutztown. Chestnut Hill (6-8), which swept a doubleheader from conference foe Nyack on Saturday, finishes the weekend splitting its four games.
The Golden Rams are off to their best start since an identical 17-6 mark after 23 games in 2010. West Chester opened that slate with a 22-6 mark.
Murray hit a one-out double to right center, scoring Ali Vavala and Kelly Anderson from second and third with the winning runs. Vavala was placed on second base per international tie-breaker rules, and Anderson drew a walk from Mandi Rush (3-4). After Kim Murl sacrificed the two runners up, Murray came through in the clutch for the second time in the game. She also singled up the middle in the bottom of the sixth with two outs, scoring Anderson from third, who had tripled with one out. That gave West Chester a 2-1 lead.
However, Chestnut Hill retaliated with the tying run in the top of the seventh to keep the game going.
Utterback (7-2) scattered five hits over eight innings, allowing two earned runs while walking one and striking out nine in the opener. She retired 17 straight batters after the first inning, before allowing the tying run in the top of the seventh.
Anderson finished the day 2-for-3 with a pair of runs scored. West Chester’s 3-4-5 hitters recorded all five of the Golden Rams’ hits in the first game of the doubleheader. Murl was 1-for-3 with an RBI, and Murray went 2-for-4 with three of the team’s four RBI. Murl knocked in Megan Kelly with a two-out single to right in the bottom of the first that tied the game, 1-1.
Everybody contributed to West Chester’s five-inning, 10-0, victory over Chestnut Hill in the nightcap. The Golden Rams scored 10 runs on 16 hits and took advantage of three Griffins errors to complete the sweep.
Meanwhile Kate Skokowski (8-4) tossed a one-hitter for her fourth shutout and seventh complete game in 11 starts. She has not allowed a run now in 15.2 consecutive innings. In fact, Skokowski has only allowed four hits while striking out 16 batters over that span. She won her fifth straight game on Sunday and has not been defeated since falling to Grand Valley State on March 7.
Megan Kelly and Vavala each went 3-for-3 with a pair of runs scored in the second game. West Chester sent 13 batters to the plate during an eight-run second inning that blew the game wide open. Anderson finished 2-for-3 with a two-run triple and team-best three RBI as well.
West Chester University’s softball squad held a moment of silence before Sunday’s home opener in memory of Seton Hill University women’s lacrosse coach Kristie Quigley, who was killed in a bus accident on March 16. The team wore red & yellow ribbons (Seton Hill’s school colors) in their hair as a show of support for the school’s lacrosse team and the members of the squad who were injured in the accident on their way to a game that fateful morning.
West Chester opens PSAC East play at home on Friday when perennial conference power Kutztown, who is the defending Eastern Division champions comes calling. That doubleheader is scheduled for a 2:30 p.m. start.
