Softball Downs Gannon in NCAA Tournament Opener

INSTITUTE, W.V.- The West Chester University softball team (35-19) was back in action on Thursday afternoon opposite a familiar foe in PSAC West rival Gannon (30-15). West Chester raced out to an early 5-0 lead during the opening two innings of play and held on to win by a final of 8-2.

In the first inning, Courtney Stump (Kutztown, Pa./Kutztown) recorded a two-RBI double to right center to plate Emily Maseth (Westminster, Md./Westminster) and Heidi McCollester (West Chester, Pa./Henderson) to give the Golden Rams an early 2-0 lead.  Jaime Klemas (South Brunswick, N.J./South Brunswick) extended the lead moments later with an RBI single to score Stump and give the Golden Rams an early 3-0 lead.

In the second inning, West Chester saw its lead grow when Annamarie Hartman (Phoenix, Ariz./Xavier College Prep) recorded a two-RBI double to left center, which plated Emily Kim (Bel Air, Md./C. Milton Wright) and Elizabeth Moore (Northampton, Pa./Northampton) to give the Golden Rams a commanding 5-0 lead.

Gannon answered back with two runs of its own during the third, which cut the deficit to 5-2.

During the fourth inning of play, West Chester added another run via an RBI single from Maseth, which plated Bri Garber (Willow Street, Pa./Lampeter Strasburg) who had reached on  a single earlier in the inning to give the Golden Rams a strong 6-2 lead. Stump followed this up with an RBI single to score Maseth and give West Chester a 7-2 lead. Klemas followed this up with an RBI single of her own to drive in McCollester from second to give the Golden Rams an 8-2 lead heading to the fifth.

Maegen Kavanagh (Easton, Pa./Easton) was impressive this afternoon as she went the distance surrendering nine hits and just two runs to earn the Opening Round victory over Gannon.  

This victory improves Kavanagh to 9-4 on the year while also dropping her ERA on the season to just under three at 2.99. As a team, West Chester is now 35-19 overall and 9-11 in neutral site games. Additionally, West Chester is now an impressive 16-2 when scoring 6-9 runs in a game and the Golden Rams 28-8 when scoring first.

West Chester will now prepare to take on Winston Salem State who earned its spot in the next round via an upset victory over host institution West Virginia State by a final of 3-0.