COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Behind strong pitching and timely hitting, the Ursinus softball team swept a non-conference doubleheader from Immaculata on Tuesday afternoon at the Snell Softball Field. The Bears cruised to an 8-0 win in six innings during game one before taking game two 5-1.
With the wins, the Bears improved to 14-6 overall and have now won five of their last six games. Meanwhile, the Mighty Macs fell to 5-8 overall.
Game 1: Ursinus 8, Immaculata 0 (6 innings)
The Bears put two runners in scoring position during the bottom of the first inning and first-year
Kayla Carr drove in the first run off a sacrifice fly. Ursinus added to its lead the same way one inning later when junior
Madison Wilson drove a deep fly ball to center field to make it 2-0. The Bears added two more in the bottom of the fourth to go up 4-0 after loading the bases. Wilson drew a bases loaded walk before a wild pitch brought home the second run. After a leadoff single in the bottom of the fifth, Carr roped a double to right center field to score pinch runner
Anna Mefford from first to make it 5-0. Junior
Sara Sullivan then bounced a ball off the wall with two outs to extend the Bears lead to 6-0. First-year
Christa Andrusiewicz induced a double play to escape a first and third situation in the top of the sixth and turned it over to the offense to enable the run rule in the bottom of the sixth. Ursinus put runners on second and third with one out and sophomore
Stephanie Wichman singled in the first runner to make it 7-0. Carr followed one batter later and ended the game with a single to score senior
Amanda Panati from third.
Game 2: Ursinus 5, Immaculata 1
Just like the first game, the Bears struck first in the bottom of the first inning via a sacrifice fly which came off the bat of Panati to make it 1-0. Ursinus got back-to-back singles to open the bottom of the third but were unable to advance runners past second base. The Bears then loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth with two outs before a deep fly out ended the threat. Ursinus once again got back-to-back singles to start in the bottom of the fifth inning and a passed ball put them both in scoring position. Senior
Allyson Meakim came through with two outs with a single through the left side that ended up scoring both runners after the relay throw was mishandled by the Mighty Macs catcher, making it 3-0. Three-straight runners reached to open the bottom of the sixth which extended the Bears lead to 4-0 after Panati singled up the middle. A mishandled ground ball at short then scored another run for the Bears with two outs to make it 5-0. Immaculata scored their first and only run of the doubleheader in the top of the seventh from a two-out single, but first-year
Riley Coneeny quickly retired the next batter to complete her gem.
Carr had a big first game from the plate for the Bears by going 2-of-3 from the plate with three RBI's. Wichman went 3-of-4 from the plate in game one with one RBI while junior
Sarah DiLello tallied a pair of hits. Sophomore
Samantha Mallen went 3-of-4 from the plate in game two while scoring two runs and stealing a pair of bases. Panati notched a pair of hits in game two and drove in two RBI's.
The first-year pitching pair of
Christa Andrusiewicz and Coneeny combined to toss 13 innings and allowed just one earned run on nine hits while striking out nine batters between the two games. Coneeny had a season-high five of those strikeouts and the pair did not walk a single batter.
The Bears return to action on Thursday, March 30th as they will travel to face Elizabethtown for a doubleheader starting at 3:00 p.m.
