EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa.- A day after a disappointing home split with Shippensburg the No. 24 West Chester University softball team (32-11, 12-2 PSAC) took to the road on Saturday afternoon for a pivotal PSAC East doubleheader against East Stroudsburg (11-21, 3-9 PSAC). West Chester took game one 9-1 in five innings before winning game two 7-4 to sweep the season series.
Game One: # 24 WCU 9 ESU 1 (5 innings)
- West Chester jumped out to an early in the top of the second, when Bri Garber (Willow Street, Pa./Lampeter-Strasburg) doubled to left to score Courtney Stump (Kutztown, Pa./Kutztown) and Jamie Klemas (South Brunswick, N.J./South Brunswick), which gave the Golden Rams the early 2-0 lead.
- This lead grew in the third, when Stump reached on a fielding error, which proved to be enough to score Cat Hammer (Philadelphia, Pa./Archbishop Ryan), thus, extending the lead to 3-0.
- In the top of the fourth, the lead grew once again as Madison Kelly (Whitehall, Pa./Whitehall) to score Garber and give West Chester the 4-0 lead. The lead grew once again when Sara Ercolani (Downingtown, Pa./Downingtown East) singled in Alyssa Herion (Avon Grove, Pa./Avon Grove) to make the score 5-0 in favor of the Golden Rams. The Golden Rams were not done as Klemas followed this up with an RBI single of her own to plate Ali LaRosa (West Chester,Pa./Rustin) making the score 6-0. Heidi McCollester (West Chester, Pa./Henderson) also worked a bases loaded walk to score #Emily Maseth# (Westminster, Md./Westminster) to make the score 7-0 before the end of the top of the fourth.
- East Stroudsburg managed to push one across in the home half of the fourth, which cut the deficit to 7-1 heading to the fifth.
- In the top of the fifth, West Chester scored another two runs courtesy of a wild pitch that scored Hammer and an RBI single from Maseth that scored Ercolani to give the Golden Rams the 9-1 lead.
- West Chester then proceeded to shutdown ESU in the bottom of the fifth, which gave the Golden Rams the shortened 9-1 victory.
- Amanda Houck (Gap, Pa./Pequea Valley) (21-3) picked up the win once again going the full five innings scattering just six hits and one run while striking out six. Angelica Dark took the loss for East Stroudsburg as she lasted 3.1 surrendering nine hits and six runs (five earned) while walking three and striking out one in the loss. Erica Molinaro entered in relief of Dark and she lasted 1.2 surrendering five hits and three earned runs while walking a pair over the course of the final five outs.
Game Two: WCU 7 ESU 4
- West Chester was right back at it in game two as in the top of the second, McCollester reached on a fielding error, which scored Garber to give West Chester the early 1-0 lead. McCollester scored the very next batter when Stump connected for a two-run shot to left to make the score 3-0.
- In the top of the fourth, McCollester broke through again with an RBI double to right center, which drove in Ercolani to make the score 4-0.
- In the top of the fifth, Herion broke through with a two-run single to center scoring Garber and Caroline Adams (Media, Pa./Renaissance Academy) to make the score 6-0.
- West Chester added one more run in the top of the sixth, when Stump doubled to right center to score LaRosa to make the score 7-0.
- East Stroudsburg broke through for four runs of its own in the home half of the sixth to make the score 7-4 heading to the seventh.
- Kelly Tinsman (Ewing, N.J./Notre Dame) (7-0) got the start for game two going five innings scattering four hits and three runs while striking out one to secure the victory. Jen Hanshaw (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley) entered in relief and lasted just 0.1 of an inning surrendering two hits and a run before exiting in favor of Houck. Houck entered for the final 1.2 scattering just two hits while striking out two to record her second save of the year.
West Chester will be back in action on Thursday afternoon when University of the Sciences comes to town for a doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m.
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