COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – In their final home games of the regular season, the Ursinus Softball team split a doubleheader with Dickinson on Saturday afternoon in Centennial Conference action at Snell Softball Field.
Prior to the doubleheader, the Bears honored its four seniors: Mackenzie Brennan, Kayla McTamney, Ally St. Jean, and Julia Eckels as a part of senior day ceremonies. With the split, the Bears record moved to 15-16 overall and 3-9 in Centennial Conference action. Meanwhile, the Red Devils record moved to 10-21 overall and 3-9 in conference play.
GAME ONE
Brennan led the Bears off with a single in the bottom of the first inning and eventually advanced to third base after a stolen base plus a single. A strikeout, however, stranded the runners without any runs scored. Dickinson opened the scoring in the top of the second with a single that drove home a run that reached base with a double following a dropped foul ball. After 10-straight Bears were retired, Ursinus put runners at second and third base in the bottom of the fifth inning with no outs. First-year Samantha Mallen executed a perfect squeeze play to score sophomore Maddie Solow on third base and tied the game at one. Brennan then roped a single to right field that ended up scoring two runs which was aided by a throwing error, giving the Bears a 3-1 lead. Unfortunately for the Bears, Dickinson rallied in top half of the sixth with three runs off a pair of doubles and took the lead back at 4-3. Ursinus was unable to advance a runner to second base during the last two innings to preserve the win for the Red Devils.
GAME TWO
McTamney worked around a pair of singles in the first inning and the Bears took the initial 1-0 lead in the bottom half of the inning. Brennan crushed a double off the wall in left field and came around to score off a single from St. Jean. Brennan and St. Jean powered home the Bears second run in the third inning as well to make it a 2-0 game. St. Jean's double off the right field wall gave Brennan just enough time to score all the way from first base after she singled to lead off the inning. Ursinus took control of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning as they scored five runs, four of which came off bases loaded walks, and went up 7-0. A single, walk, and hit by pitch set the stage for St. Jean to drive in the first run before eight-straight balls brought in the next two. First-year Rachel Hartman battled through a long at-bat to draw the fourth bases loaded walk of the inning. Dickinson moved runners to second and third base with just one out, but a sharp lineout to Mallen in shallow centerfield doubled up the Red Devil runner on second base to end the inning. Ursinus enacted the run-rule in the bottom half of the inning after St. Jean tripled to score junior Amanda Panati, who reached with a single.
St. Jean went a perfect 4-of-4 at the plate in game two, falling just a home run short of the cycle, and drove in four runs. Brennan went a combined 4-of-5 from the plate in the two games and scored three runs in game two. Junior pitcher Alexis Miller combined to throw 5.2 innings out of the bullpen between the two games and allowed just two hits (both in game two) and struck out three batters. Miller earned the win in game two behind her four shutout innings after McTamney pitched the first inning.
The Bears return to action on Tuesday, April 26th as they will travel to face Muhlenberg in a Centennial Conference doubleheader starting at 3 p.m.