No. 20 West Chester Splits Doubleheader With Kutztown

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

WEST CHESTER, Pa. – Courtney Stump (Kutztown, Pa./Kutztown) doubled home a run in the bottom of the sixth inning of game two to help host West Chester salvage a PSAC East softball split with visiting Kutztown on a sun-splashed Friday afternoon.
 
West Chester (38-10, 11-3 PSAC East) and Kutztown (28-13, 11-3) remain in a tie for first place in the Eastern Division standings with just one day left in the regular season. The Golden Bears claimed the opener, 2-1, in nine innings with the Golden Rams rebounding for a 6-5 win in the second game.
 
Sara Ercolani (Downingtown, Pa./Downingtown East) led off the sixth inning with a double, and then traded places with Stump, who delivered the game-winning hit one batter later.
 
Kutztown had battled back from a 3-1 deficit to tie the game with a two-spot in the third inning. The Bears then scored one each in the fourth and fifth to take a 5-3 lead into the bottom half of the fifth.
 
Heidi McCollester (West Chester, Pa./Henderson) then homered to lead off the Rams' half of the frame, and Sarah Walasavage (Minersville, Pa./Minersville) scored an unearned run to tie the game.
 
Brooke Harner (Chadds Ford, Pa./Kennett) came on in relief of starter Amanda Houck (Gap, Pa./Pequea Valley) and picked up the win to improve to 7-3 on the year. She threw 4.2 innings, allowing two runs on three hits. She walked one and struck out four. Houck lasted 2.1 innings in the nightcap, after tossing all nine innings of the opener, and surrendered three runs – one of them earned – on three hits. She walked one and struck out one.
 
Houck vs. Kutztown ace Savannah Nierentz in the opener was all it was billed to be. The two conference aces went toe-to-toe for nine innings – just as they did in the first game of a doubleheader at Kutztown earlier in the season – and neither flinched until the final frame.
 
Kutztown's Gabby Tareila hit a two-run homer in the top of the ninth to put finally break a scoreless deadlock and give the Bears a 2-0 lead. In West Chester's half, the Rams got a RBI single from Ercolani to cut the deficit in half, and then put runners on second and third with two outs, but could not come up with one more hit to end the contest.
 
West Chester had its chances in regulation. The Golden Rams squandered a leadoff double in the fifth and a leadoff triple in the sixth, but could not get the runners home.
 
Houck (25-3) saw her 22-game streak with a winning decision come to a close in the opener. Nierentz (10-4) also pitched a complete game in the first contest for her 10th win of the season. She started game two as well for the Bears, but did not finish the game.
 
West Chester concludes the regular season Saturday afternoon at Shippensburg with a doubleheader that begins at 1 p.m.