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MILLERSVILLE, Pa. – West Chester split a PSAC East doubleheader with host Millersville on Saturday, taking the opener 7-1, before dropping the nightcap, 1-0.
West Chester (32-17, 9-7 PSAC East) finished in a tie for second place in the PSAC East with Kutztown and will be the third seed out of the East in the upcoming conference tournament. Millersville (30-20, 6-10) finishes the regular season in fourth place.
The Golden Rams closed out the regular-season winners in six of their last eight contests. However, the 1-0 loss to Millersville on Saturday cost West Chester sole possession of second place and the No. 2 seed. West Chester wins the season series from Millersville, 3 games to 1, and allowed just two runs in those four games against the Marauders this spring.
The Golden Rams will take on Lock Haven at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, May 1 in the opening round of the 2013 PSAC Softball Tournament at Veteran’s Park in Quakertown, Pa.
West Chester scored seven runs on 13 hits in the opener, including a three-spot in the top of the seventh to break open a 4-1 ballgame. However, the Rams mustered just four hits in the nightcap and could not push a run across.
Senior Devon Utterback (18-7) went the distance in the opener to get the win. She scattered seven hits over seven innings while striking out two. She has now struck out a career-best 134 batters this spring. She is one strikeout away from tying former Golden Rams great Adina DeHainaut’s school record 135 k’s in 2006. Utterback’s 18th win of the season is also tied for the second-most victories in a single season by a West Chester pitcher. With two more wins inside the circle in the playoffs, Utterback would become just the second hurler in school history to call herself a 20-game winner.
Kelly Anderson and J.P. Norris each had run-scoring singles in the seventh inning of game one while a third run scored on an error. Megan Kelly hit a RBI single in the fourth when West Chester originally jumped out in front, 2-0. The Rams would tack on one more in both the fifth and sixth to lead 4-0.
Millersville fought back with its lone tally in the bottom of the sixth, but West Chester answered that with a decisive seventh.
Norris went 3-for-5 with a pair of RBI in the opener. Anderson was 1-for-3 with two RBI as well. Jess Schuck was 2-for-5.
Anderson, Norris, Schuck and Jill Murray each registered a hit in the nightcap. However, Millersville scratched a run across in the second when a leadoff single was moved up by consecutive sacrifice bunts, and Amanda Wink hit a two-out single to score the only run of the game.
Kate Skokowski (9-9) was the hard-luck loser inside the circle for West Chester in game two. She allowed six hits in a complete-game effort and just the one run.
