WEST CHESTER, Pa.-The West Chester University softball team (27-16, 8-4 PSAC) was back in action on Thursday afternoon against PSAC rival East Stroudsburg (22-20, 5-7 PSAC). West Chester registered another split with East Stroudsburg as the Golden Rams captured game one by a final score of 7-0 before dropping game two 5-4.
Bri Garber (Willow Street, Pa./Lampeter-Strasburg) notched another four hits, which raised her career total to 204 and allowed her to pass J.P. Norris moving into sixth place in career hitting for the purple and gold.
Game One: WCU 7 ESU 0
- In the first inning, West Chester claimed an early 2-0 lead when Heidi McCollester (West Chester, Pa./Henderson) roped a single to left, which scored Garber and Jaime Klemas (South Brunswick, N.J./South Brunswick) to give the Golden Rams an early 2-0 lead.
- In fourth inning, West Chester strung together RBI singles as Emily Maseth (Westminster, Md./Westminster) singled in a pair of runs before Courtney Stump (Kutztown, Pa./Kutztown) and Annamarie Hartman (Phoenix, Ariz./Xavier College Prep) recorded RBI singles to give West Chester a commanding 6-0 lead.Â
- West Chester grew its lead during the fifth as Klemas connected with an RBI double to left center to score Garber, thus, giving West Chester a commanding 7-0 lead.
- This lead was more than enough for starting pitcher Reilly Gearhart (Lancaster, Pa./Manheim Township) as she pitched a great game going the distance surrendering just five hits while striking out four ESU batters to improve to 13-6 on the year.
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Game Two: ESU 5 WCU 4
- East Stroudsburg claimed an early 1-0 lead during the top of the first but Maegen Kavanagh (Easton, Pa./Easton) was able to work out of trouble to limit the damage to just one and send the game to the home half of the first with WCU trailing by just one.
- In the top of the second, East Stroudsburg used some defensive miscues from West Chester to double its lead making the score 2-0 in favor of the Warriors heading to the home half of the second.Â
- In the bottom of the second, Garber reached on a fielding error by the ESU first basemen, which allowed Tori McCoach (Langhorne, Pa./Conwell Egan) to trim the deficit to 2-1.
- East Stroudsburg answered back with a run of its own, which extended the ESU lead to 3-1.
- During the home half of the third, McCollester roped her team-leading seventh home run of the season with a solo shot to left field to trim the deficit to 3-2 heading to the fourth.
- In the fourth, East Stroudsburg threatened as the Warriors got a runner over to third base with just one out but Kavanagh was able to get a pair of easy outs to keep the score at 3-2 heading to the home half of the fourth.
- In the top of the fifth, East Stroudsburg added one more run to its lead with a solo home run over the left center field fence, which extended the lead to 4-2. This solo shot closed the book on Kavanagh (6-4) who lasted just 4.1 innings surrendering six hits and four runs (two earned) before exiting in favor of Jen Hanshaw (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley). Hanshaw finished the game for West Chester as she tossed the final 2.2 surrendering just one hit and one unearned run while also striking out one in relief.Â
- In the home half of the fifth, West Chester got one run back as McCollester registered an RBI single over the third base bag to score Garber and trim the deficit to 4-3. Stump followed this up with a single to right, which nearly scored Maseth, however, a strong throw to the plate was enough to cut down Maseth at the plate to keep West Chester trailing 4-3 heading to the sixth.Â
- In the bottom of the sixth, Gillian Thomas (Spring Mills, W.V./Williamsport) reached on a throwing error and advanced to second on the overthrow before pinch runner Caroline Adams (Media, Pa./Renaissance Academy) scored on a fielding error by the shortstop off the bat of Emily Kim (Bel Air, Md./C. Milton Wright) to even the score at 4-4. Garber followed up with a double into the left field corner but West Chester was unable to plate the go-ahead run, thus, sending the game to the seventh tied at 4-4.Â
- During the top of the seventh, East Stroudsburg answered back with a run of its own courtesy of a pair of errors to reclaim the 5-4 lead, which was enough for East Stroudsburg to escape with the victory and split the season series with West Chester.Â
Up Next:
West Chester will be back in action on Saturday afternoon on the road at Shippensburg with that contest set to begin at 1 p.m.
