WEST CHESTER, PA –
Danielle Ciliberto (Ambler, Pa./Wissahickon) was dominant in the opener, and
Paige Marabel (Tunkhannock, Pa./Tunkhannock) delivered the heroics in the night cap as host West Chester swept a non-conference softball doubleheader from visiting Wilmington on a windy, overcast Sunday afternoon.
West Chester (6-8) made quick work of Wilmington (3-15) in game one by scoring four times in the first inning and then riding the right arm of Ciliberto to a 5-inning, 10-0 victory. The second game was a much different story with the game ending in walk-off fashion in the bottom of the seventh.
Wilmington scored two runs in the sixth inning of game two to take its first lead of the afternoon, and then added one more in the seventh, to extend that advantage to 3-1 lead into the bottom half of the inning. When West Chester's first two batters in its final at bats were retired without much trouble, it looked as though the Wildcats were going to get out of West Chester with a split of its doubleheader.
However, the Golden Rams' nine-hole hitter,
Tess Kearney (Hatboro, Pa./Hatboro-Horsham) singled up the middle to start the improbable rally.
Mairead Hopkins (West Chester, Pa./Rustin) followed up with a single, and runners stood at first and second with two outs. Ciliberto then doubled off the centerfield wall plating Kearney and Hopkins and tying the game at 3-3.
Ella Heap (York, Pa./Central York) pinch ran for Ciliberto. Marabel, who had started the game behind the plate, but was lifted for
Holly Muni (Hamilton, N.J./Allentown) in the fourth, re-entered to pinch hit for Muni. She doubled down the left field line that easily scored Heap with the game-winning run.
West Chester had pulled off a successful delayed steal in the bottom of the fifth to break a scoreless deadlock earlier in the contest.
Kayla Fitzpatrick (Carle Place, N.Y./Sacred Heart Academy) led off with a walk and was sacrificed to second. Kearney then reached on an error, and Fitzpatrick moved over to third. Kearney then stole second, and Fitzpatrick then stole home when the throw down was off the bag.
Golden Rams starting pitcher,
Maci Strechay (Collegeville, Pa./Perkiomen Valley) gave way to Ciliberto inside the circle in the sixth inning after throwing five scoreless innings yielding just four hits and walking two while striking out one. Ciliberto, who was marvelous in game one, gave up three runs, two of them earned, on five hits in the next two innings that let Wilmington take a 3-1 lead. Ciliberto (4-4) earned the win in relief as a result of West Chester's late rally and came away with two victories on the afternoon.
The senior right-hander threw a complete-game, two-hit shutout in the opener striking out one without issuing a walk.
West Chester got to Wilmington starter Maddie Vollmer in the first loading the bases with nobody out. An RBI walk and RBI hit by pitch was followed by a pair of RBI singles before the dust had settled and West Chester led, 4-0. Ciliberto singled in a run in the second to push the lead to 5-0. West Chester then benefitted from a pair of bases loaded walks and a pair of sacrifice flies to extend that lead to double figures.
Hopkins finished game one 2-for-3 with three runs scored and an RBI. Ciliberto and Fitzpatrick were 2-for-3 with a pair of RBIs each. Kearney went 2-for-2 with a run scored and an RBI.
Lauryn Kane (Plymouth Meeting, Pa./Plymouth Whitemarsh) went 2-for-2 with a run scored as well.
Marabel finished 1-for-4 in the two games combined. Her one hit coming in her final at bat in game two.
West Chester will travel to Holy Family on Wednesday and return home to face Jefferson on Thursday.
