La Plume, Pa. – Keystone College and Cedar Crest College split a key Colonial States Athletic Conference softball doubleheader on Saturday as the Giants won the opener 8-7 on a two-run, walk-off hit from
Kimberly Rivera (New York, NY/South Bronx Campus) before the Falcons bounced back with a 9-2 victory in the nightcap. Keystone moves to 14-18 this spring and 9-9 in conference play while the Falcons now sport a 19-15 overall record including a 10-6 mark in the CSAC.
Game 1 Cedar Crest scored a run in their first at-bats of Saturday's opener on an RBI groundout, but Keystone took the lead in the bottom of the first inning with a pair of runs.
Katie Thompson (Nazareth, PA/Nazareth Area) scored on
Emily Long (Shamokin, PA/Our Lady of Lourdes Regional)'s ninth triple of the year before coming home on an RBI groundout off the bat of
Lindsey Bucklaw (Carbondale, PA/Carbondale Area). Long's triple was the ninth of her career which is one shy of the Giants' all-time program record.
The Falcons countered with five unearned runs in the visitor's second to open up a 6-2 advantage. Cedar Crest got a pair of RBI base hits before Molly Schnaubelt hit a three-run double to deep centerfield. The Giants got a pair of runs back in the home second as
Breelyn Johnson-Fite (Bogota, NJ/Bergen County Technical) scored on a Thompson double before
Sarah Stacey (Shickshinny, PA/Lake-Lehman) drove in Thompson with an RBI groundout.
Johnson-Fite launched an RBI double off the centerfield fence in the bottom of the third inning to drive in Rivera to pull Keystone to with a run before Johnson-Fite scored on a Cedar Crest error to tie the game at 6-6.
The visitors went back in front on a squeeze bunt in the top of the fifth inning and held the 7-6 lead going into the bottom of the seventh inning. Stacey and Long led off the inning with back-to-back base hits and moved into scoring position on a groundout by Bucklaw. Rivera then ended the game by ripping a ball into the gap in left center to bring home Stacey and Long as the Giants walked off with the dramatic, 8-7 victory.
Keystone starting pitcher
Alyssa Hughes (Sellersville, PA/Pennridge) earned the win after allowing just two earned runs on 10 hits while striking out four batters in seven innings of work.
Rivera went 4-4 with the game-winning RBIs, Long collected three hits, and Thompson and Johnson-Fite picked up a pair of hits for the Giants in the game one win.
Cedar Crest starter Laura Rau was charged with the loss after yielding eight runs on 12 hits while picking up one strikeout in 6.1 innings.
Kaylee Martinez went 3-4 at the plate while Schnaubelt drove in a game-high four runs for the Falcons.
Game 2 Cedar Crest took a 1-0 lead in top of the first inning of Saturday's nightcap on a sacrifice fly before opening the game up with five runs on five hits and two Keystone errors to open up a 6-0 advantage.
After the Falcons tacked on their seventh run in the visitor's fourth, the Giants got on the board in the bottom half of the inning when Stacey come home on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Bucklaw to cut the host's deficit to 7-1, but Cedar Crest restored its seven-run lead by plating one in the following inning on an RBI single.
The Falcons pushed their lead to 9-1 in the top of the seventh inning before
Shannon Dermont (Scranton, PA/West Scranton) capped the scoring with a solo home run in the bottom half of the frame.
April Daly went the distance in the circle for Cedar Crest, picking up the win after allowing two runs on four hits while fanning two batters. Lily Acosta went 4-5 with three RBIs to power the Falcons offense in the game two victory.
Emily Faulkner (Laceyville, PA/Wyalusing Valley) suffered the loss after being charged with four earned runs on 11 hits to go along with one strikeout in 4.2 innings of work before being relieved by Hughes, who allowed one run on three hits while striking out one batter in 1.1 innings.
Nicole Shay (Thompson, PA/Susquehanna Community) retired all three batters she faced in the seventh inning to close out the game on the rubber for the Giants.
Dermont, Johnson-Fite, Hartman, and Shay accounted Keystone's four hits in the game two defeat.
Up Next Keystone returns to the diamond on Monday afternoon with a non-conference doubleheader at King's College starting at 3:00 p.m.
