ABINGTON, Pa. - Swarthmore College Softball head coach
Melissa Finley picked up career wins No. 99 and 100 as the Garnet beat Penn State Abington twice on Thursday.
Finley is in the midst of her second season leading the Garnet. She has a 29-21 record at Swarthmore. She also spent five seasons as head coach at Division I Colgate University.
GAME ONE: Swarthmore 6, PSU Abington 5 (8 innings)
The first game went to extras as the scoring came to a halt during the later innings.
Swarthmore fell behind 2-0 in the first, but a solo home run by junior
Kalli Segel got the Garnet on the board in the second. The homer was Segel's first of the season and the third of her career. She hit two as a freshman.
The Garnet put together a three-run rally to take the lead in the third. Senior
Marit Vike scored on a passed ball, Segel drove in freshman
Gwen Glatz on a ground out, and junior
Gabriella Natoli scored as sophomore
Lucy Decker reached on an error.
PSU quickly regained the lead by reaching home three times in the bottom of the inning. The score was 5-4.
Glatz tied it in the fourth by scoring freshman
Laura Hirai on a sacrifice fly.
The rest of the game was scoreless until sophomore
Victoria Overbeck singled to drive in sophomore
Mika Maenaga in the top of the eighth.
Glatz was the hero in the circle. She came on in relief and pitched four scoreless and hitless innings. She's 4-2 this season with a 1.31 ERA.
GAME TWO: Swarthmore 10, PSU Abington 1 (6 Innings)
Swarthmore put up runs early as singles in the first inning by Natoli, Segel and Overbeck all resulted in a run.
Decker pitched this game and only allowed a run in the fourth inning. She struck out three, walked one and gave up five hits.
It wasn't until the sixth inning that Swarthmore would strike again. The Garnet scored seven times in that frame. Natoli drove in Maenaga with a double. Freshman
Eva Karolczak had a two-RBI single, and senior
Elizabeth Curcio scored Overbeck with a triple.
Natoli went 4-for-8 with two RBIs, two runs scored and two doubles on Thursday.
Finley will look to add two more wins to her resume as Swarthmore returns home for a pair of Centennial Conference games against Franklin & Marshall College beginning Saturday at 1 p.m.
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