COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus softball team locked up a berth in the Centennial Conference Tournament with a doubleheader sweep of Franklin & Marshall on Tuesday afternoon at the Snell Softball Field. The Bears walked it off for a 3-2 win in game one before shutting out the Diplomats 6-0 in game two.
 
 
With the sweep, the Bears improved to 21-16 overall and finish the Centennial Conference slate 9-7. Ursinus will either be the No. 3 seed or the No. 4 seed in the Centennial Conference Tournament and that will be determined by the results of the Gettysburg/Muhlenberg doubleheader on Saturday. The Bears will be the No. 3 seed with one Muhlenberg loss in that series with the Bullets. Meanwhile, the Diplomats fell to 9-22 overall and 4-10 in conference play.
 
 

The Diplomats opened the scoring in game one with a two-out RBI single behind getting runners and first and second base to start the game in the top of the first. Senior Samantha Mallen powered the Bears to tie the game at one in the bottom of the third that started with a leadoff single to set the Ursinus single-season hits record. Mallen stole second after her single and advanced to third following a sacrifice bunt from first-year Anna Evanchik. The score remained tied at one until the top of the seventh when the Diplomats took the lead on an RBI single which came two batters after a leadoff double. Ursinus began its rally when junior Megan Mills drew a one-out walk and advanced to second after a sacrifice bunt from senior Rachel Hartman. Back-to-back walks from Mallen and Evanchik set the stage for junior Kayla Carr with the bases loaded. Carr hit a ground ball up the middle that was snatched by the Diplomats second baseman, who charged to second base to try and get the force out. Evanchik beat her to the bag which allowed both Mills and Mallen to score and win the game for the Bears.
 
 

In game two, Mallen started things off once again with a single and stolen base before advancing to third on a ground out. First-year Reagan Robinson doubled her in to make it a 1-0 lead for the Bears and she came around to score two batters later off a fielding error at first base that extended the inning, bringing the score to 2-0. Ursinus added two more runs in the bottom of the second behind three hits and one error to make it 4-0. After two fly outs, Evanchik singled to keep the inning going before Carr singled to left field and a mishandle in the outfield allowed Evanchik to score. Robinson doubled in the next at-bat to score Carr and cap the inning. Ursinus loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning and sophomore Madyson Hickman dropped a perfectly placed infield single in front of the shortstop to score Carr and make it 5-0. The Bears added one last run in the bottom of the sixth when senior Stephanie Wichman singled in Carr, who led the inning off with a double. First-year pitcher Lucy Wolf twirled her first collegiate complete game shutout by allowing just two hits in seven innings with six strikeouts plus two walks for her team-leading 10th win of the season. Wolf did not allow a Diplomat runner advance past second base during the game.
 
 

Mallen added three hits in the doubleheader to move to 197 career hits and topped the Bears single-season hits record that was previously held by Marci Logan with 60 in 2005. Mallen also swiped three bases in the doubleheader and needs three more to retake her former Centennial Conference single-season stolen base record. Carr totaled all three RBI's in game one and went 3-for-4 with a double and three runs scored in game two. Robinson went 3-for-3 with two RBI's and scored a run while reaching base all four times. Hickman did the same by going 3-for-3 with an RBI and walk. Junior pitcher Christa Andrusiewicz earned a complete game win in game one by allowing two runs (one earned) on six hits while striking out two.
 
 

The Bears conclude their regular season on Saturday, April 26th as they will host No. 8 Salisbury for senior day starting at 1:00 p.m.