Hackettstown, N.J. – Keystone College split a pair of Colonial States Athletic Conference softball games at Centenary College on Friday afternoon the Giants' quest for a postseason bid will come down to the final day of the regular season on Saturday.  The Giants (15-21, 10-10 CSAC) won Friday's opener 4-1 before dropping a 9-5 decision to the Cyclones (7-22, 7-13 CSAC) in the nightcap.      

Cedar Crest College, who split a twin-bill at Gwynedd Mercy University on Friday, holds the sixth and final playoff spot with an 11-9 conference record to sit one game ahead of Keystone.  The Giants host Cabrini College on Saturday while the Falcons host Marywood University.  Keystone needs two win over the Cavaliers and two Marywood wins to overtake Cedar Crest outright for the final playoff spot. 
 
Should Keystone and Cedar Crest finish with identical conference records, the final playoff spot would be determined by the team with the win over the highest seeded playoff team.  Cabrini currently occupies the #2 spot, who Keystone will have to beat at least once on Saturday, while Gwynedd Mercy could overtake that spot depending on Saturday's results, with the Falcons holding a win over the Griffins.
 
Game 1
 
Centenary took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning of Friday's opener on an RBI triple from Alexis Wilson triple and held the one-run edge until the top of the fifth inning when Keystone scored three runs on four hits to take a 3-1 edge.  Katie Thompson (Nazareth, PA/Nazareth Area) drove in Shannon Dermont (Scranton, PA/West Scranton) and Ryleigh Fitch (Springville, PA/Tunkhannock) with a triple to left field before coming home on a Sarah Stacey (Shickshinny, PA/Lake-Lehman) triple.
 
Stacey singled home Kaylee Hartman (Red Bank, NJ/Red Bank Regional) in the visitor's seventh to give the Giants a 4-1 advantage before Alyssa Hughes (Sellersville, PA/Pennridge) closed out the complete game win in the circle by retiring Centenary with the potential tying run at the plate.
 
Hughes scattered five hits and struck out a pair of batters in the complete game win for the Giants, who got two hits apiece from Thompson and Stacey in the win.
 
Kylie Morgan-Polefka suffered the loss for the Cyclones after allowing three runs on five hits while striking out six batters in 4.2 innings of work before handing the ball off to Katie Lauria, who yielded one run on three hits in the final 2.1 innings for Centenary, who got their five hits from five different players.
 
Game 2
 
Centenary took control of Saturday's second game early, scoring four runs on five hits in the first inning before adding on two runs on three hits the following inning to hold a 6-0 advantage after two innings of play. 
 
Keystone battled back to within two runs, 6-4, by plating four runs on five hits in the top of the third.  Thompson drove in Breelyn Johnson-Fite (Bogota, NJ/Bergen County Technical) with a single to centerfield before Lindsey Bucklaw (Carbondale, PA/Carbondale Area) connected on a two-run base hit.  Kimberly Rivera (New York, NY/South Bronx Campus) followed with a single to left to plate Emily Long (Shamokin, PA/Our Lady of Lourdes Regional) as the Giants narrowed their deficit to a pair of runs.
 
Centenary pushed their lead to 9-4 with single a run in the home fifth and two more in the bottom of the sixth inning.  Thompson came home on a wild pitch in Keystone's last at-bats to close out the scoring.
 
Sammie Darling was charged with four runs on four hits in 2.1 innings for Centenary before handing the ball off to Morgan-Polefka, who picked up the win after allowing one run on three hits in 4.2 innings in the circle for the Cyclones, who were paced by Lauria's 3-4, three-RBI game at the plate.
 
Hughes yielded four runs on four hits while Emily Faulkner (Laceyville, PA/Wyalusing Valley) was charged with five runs on seven hits while fanning five batters in 5.2 innings for the Giants, who got two hits and two runs scored from Thompson and a pair of RBIs from Bucklaw. 
 
Up Next
 
Keystone will wrap up the regular season on Saturday with a decisive CSAC series against Cabrini starting at 12:00 p.m. at Edmunds Field in La Plume.