PITTSBURGH, Pa. (April 9) – The Waynesburg University softball team traveled to Pittsburgh to take on Chatham on Tuesday night. The Yellow Jackets kept the score close in both games, but Chatham picked up the sweep in front of its home crowd.
Chatham (9-13, 3-3) jumped out to an early lead after pushing two runs across in the first inning in game one. Senior pitcher
Courtney Messenger (East Liverpool, Ohio/Beaver Local) settled in after that for Waynesburg (6-18, 2-6), keeping the Yellow Jackets in the contest without allowing another run until the sixth inning.
Unfortunately for the Jackets, it was not able to string enough hits together to make a comeback. Waynesburg finally cracked the scoresheet in the fourth inning as junior left fielder
Taylor Staley (Waynesburg, Pa./Waynesburg Central) scored on a wild pitch. That would be all the team could muster offensively, as Chatham shut down the Jacket bats over the final three frames to grab the 3-1 decision.
Messenger took the loss in the circle after allowing three runs on seven hits while striking out four batters. Staley and junior catcher
Rachel Skon (Pittsburgh, Pa./Brashear) each managed two of the eight total hits the Yellow Jackets had in the first game.
Game two saw Waynesburg jump out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning as Skon singled and then advanced to second on an error, which allowed sophomore shortstop
Hannah Batovsky (New Salem, Pa./Brownsville) to score. The lead was short-lived, though, as Chatham plated four runs in the bottom half of the frame to take a 4-1 advantage.
Skon grabbed her second RBI of the contest in the third, cutting the deficit to 4-2 on a single that scored Batovsky. Unfortunately for Waynesburg, that was as close as the game came as Chatham scored one run in the third, two in the fifth and two in the sixth to put the game away for a final score of 9-2.
Sophomore
Emma Kubalak (Spring Mills, Pa./Penns Valley) was tagged with the loss in the second game, throwing 4 1/3 innings and allowing seven runs (five earned) on 11 hits and two walks. Messenger pitched the finals 1 2/3 innings and allowed two more runs.
Skon paced the Jackets offensively for the day, going a combined four-for-seven across the two games with a pair of RBI. Waynesburg managed just five hits in the second game.
Waynesburg will be back in action this Friday when it hosts Geneva for a double header that begins at 3:30 p.m.
