COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus softball team scored two runs late in game two to earn a split with Gettysburg on Thursday afternoon in their final Centennial Conference doubleheader of the regular season. The Bullets took game one 2-0 in 10 innings before the Bears edged them 3-1 in game two.
With the win, the Bears record moved to 27-12 overall and 12-3 in Centennial Conference action. The game two win ensured the Bears would get no lower than the No. 2 seed in next week's Centennial Conference Tournament while keeping the team in first place with a shot at hosting days 2 through 4. Meanwhile, the Bullets record moved to 24-13-1 overall and 11-5 in conference play as they have already locked up a conference tournament berth. Gettysburg will either be the No. 3 or No. 4 seed in next week's tournament and will await the results of the Dickinson/Washington College doubleheader.
After the doubleheader, the Bears honored its five seniors:
Amanda Panati,
Anna Mefford,
Alexis Miller,
Allyson Meakim, and
Jordan Moore as a part of senior day ceremonies.
GAME 1: Gettysburg 2, Ursinus 0 (10 innings)
Game one featured the two winningest pitchers in the Centennial Conference this season in the Bears first-year
Christa Andrusiewicz and the Bullets Paige Forry. The matchup lived up to the hype as the pitchers traded back and forth shutout innings back while escaping various jams and tough spots. The top of the 10th proved to be the decisive inning as the Bullets scored two runs off a throwing error to first with runners on second and third with two outs. Using the international tiebreaker starting in the 10th, the Bears were unable to respond to the two runs which ended the marathon. Andrusiewicz tossed all 10 innings and allowed nine hits, two unearned runs while striking out three and walking two. She valiantly went toe-to-toe with Forry, who leads the Centennial Conference in wins, strikeouts, while having the lowest ERA. Forry finished the day by allowing five hits, no runs, while striking out 10 and walking two in the 10 innings.
GAME 2: Ursinus 3, Gettysburg 1
The Bears jumped on the board first by scoring a run in the bottom of the first off a wild sequence. With runners on second and third base and one out, a groundout to the circle caught sophomore
Samantha Mallen in a rundown between third and home. Mallen was eventually tagged out sliding back to third and then the Bullets went to catch Meakim in a rundown between first and second base. However, the time she used in the rundown allowed junior
Madison Wilson to score from second before she was tagged out to end the inning. Gettysburg knotted the game up at one after back-to-back wild pitches scored a runner from second with two outs. The game stayed tied at one until the bottom of sixth when junior
Sara Sullivan ripped a double to right center to score two runs and put the Bears ahead 3-1. Meakim doubled with one out and Panati followed with a single deep in the hole at shortstop to set the stage for Sullivan's heroics. First-year
Riley Coneeny entered the seventh and locked down her third save of the season by working around a leadoff error.
Mallen finished the game with two hits and each contests while stealing three bases to set a new single-season stolen base record for Ursinus with 36 that topped the previous season best of 34 set by Janetta Trecroce in 1997. She now sits four stolen bases away from claiming the Centennial Conference single-season record. Sullivan went 2-of-3 in game two with her two RBIs off the game-winning double. Sophomore
Stephanie Wichman earned her ninth win of the season after allowing seven hits and one earned run in six innings while striking out five batters.
The Bears were scheduled to wrap up their regular season with the resumption of the first Franklin & Marshall game from April 4th on Friday afternoon but that has been postponed due to inclement weather. The teams will now try to find another agreeable time in the coming days.
Visit Ursinus athletics' home online, Ursinusathletics.com, anytime for up-to-the-minute news on all Bears sports including post-game recaps, interviews, and information on next week's Centennial Conference Tournament.
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