WASHINGTON, Pa. (April 24) – The Waynesburg University softball team capped an exhausting week with a road doubleheader at Washington & Jefferson. The Yellow Jackets rallied to take game one 7-2, but ran out of gas in a 7-4 setback in the late contest.
The split ended a 5-3 week for Waynesburg (22-9, 11-5) that was made up of four doubleheaders. Three of those twin bills were against teams that, if the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) tournament was to start today, would make the field.
Things started well for the Presidents (8-12, 4-8), who took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Waynesburg got one of those runs back in the third, when sophomore
Ella Brookman (Washington, Pa. / Chartiers-Houston) lifted a sacrifice fly that scored freshman centerfielder
Mackenzie Kearns (Elizabeth, Pa. / Elizabeth Forward).
W&J maintained its one-run lead until the top of the seventh, when the Jacket bats finally woke up for six runs on six hits, a hit batsman and two errors. After two hits and an error loaded the bases, Kearns came through in the clutch with a two-run single that put Waynesburg up 3-2. The Jackets took advantage of a passed ball and a throwing error that allowed sophomore
Kayla Gratton (Monroeville, Pa. / Gateway) and Kearns to sprint home.
Brookman followed in the ensuing at-bat with an RBI double and two batters later, sophomore
Emma Bliss (Uniontown, Pa. / Laurel Highlands) capped the scoring with a run-producing single.
Freshman pitcher
Sydney Wilson (Pentress, W.Va. / Clay Battelle) did the rest, as she put the finishing touches on another complete game win to improve to 14-4 in the circle. She allowed two earned runs on five hits, all singles, and three walks with four strikeouts.
Waynesburg outhit W&J 10-5 in the opener. Kearns, Bliss, freshman
Kiana Bagnell (Inwood, W.Va. / Musselman) and junior
Reghan Benschoter (Newark, Ohio / Granville) tallied two hits each in the win.
Once again, W&J got on the board first, this time recording a run in the bottom of the first and the bottom of the second to go up 2-0 during game two. A Bagnell triple that scored freshman
Dilyn Roberts (Sellersburg, Ind. / Henryville) cut the deficit in half in the top of the third inning. Junior
Brin Hunter (West Alexander, Pa. / McGuffey) allowed Roberts to score the game-tying run with a single.
An unearned run in the fourth put the Presidents up 3-2. Waynesburg took its only lead of the late contest in the fifth. Bagnell knotted things up 3-3 thanks to a double that scored Kearns. Later in the inning, sophomore
Sydney Senay (Canonsburg, Pa. / Canon-McMillan) came up clutch with a two-out RBI single that made the score 4-3.
Unfortunately, the Presidents refused to go away, and despite Wilson coming in to attempt to close the game in the sixth, they racked up four runs in the sixth to go up 7-4. Waynesburg put a runner on in the top of the seventh, but it couldn't put together a second-straight multi-run, late-inning rally.
Brookman got the start in the circle and allowed five runs, four of which were earned, on five hits and two walks to take the loss over 5.1 innings of work. Wilson recorded the final two outs of the day.
Once again, the Jackets outhit W&J, this time by an 8-7 edge. Hunter led the charge by going three-for-four at the plate with an RBI. Bagnell doubled, tripled, logged two RBIs and scored a run in one of her best collegiate performances at the dish.
Waynesburg will get a well-deserved break from competition as its players go through finals week. The Jackets are scheduled to complete their regular season schedule on Saturday, April 30, when they host Franciscan for a PAC doubleheader. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.
