WAYNESBURG, Pa. (March 22) – The Waynesburg University softball team made its long-awaited home debut on Wednesday when it welcomed La Roche to town for a non-Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) doubleheader. The Yellow Jackets split the twin-bill by dropping the opener 4-2 and rolling to a 9-1 victory in game two.
Waynesburg (7-3) was its own worst enemy in the early contest. The usually potent Jacket bats were kept mostly in check, with the exception of a solo homerun by sophomore
Grace Higgins (Canonsburg, Pa. / Canon-McMillan) in the bottom of the fifth that gave the home team a 2-0 lead. The Orange and Black scratched out its first score of the day in the bottom of the first when Higgins scored the opening run on an error during the at-bat of senior
Brin Hunter (West Alexander, Pa. / McGuffey).
Those two runs looked like enough offense for sophomore pitcher
Sydney Wilson (Pentress, W.Va. / Clay-Battelle) who held La Roche (3-8) hitless for five innings. The Redhawks scored all four of their runs in innings six and seven, with three of those tallies being of the unearned variety thanks, in part, to three errors.
Despite its struggles, Waynesburg had a chance to tie the game or walk off with a win in the bottom of the seventh after loading the bases with just one out on the board. Unfortunately, the Redhawks were able to retire back-to-back hitters to lock up the victory.
As previously mentioned, Wilson certainly pitched well enough to earn a win as she piled up 10 strikeouts over the complete-game performance. She allowed just three hits, all singles, walked a pair and hit two more.
Junior
Ella Brookman (Washington, Pa. / Chartiers-Houston) collected a game-high two hits in three at-bats, while Higgins homered, reached base two more times by getting hit with pitches, stole a base and scored twice.
An infusion of this year's talented freshman class seemed to invigorate the Waynesburg lineup in game two. Of the Yellow Jackets' 14 hits in the six-inning win, seven of them were by freshmen, including two each for
Kassidy Trimble (Parkersburg, W.Va. / Parkersburgh South),
Alyssa Rager (Washington, Pa. / Trinity) and
Paige McAvoy (Canonsburg, Pa. / Chartiers-Houston). Another first-year performer,
Jasmine Demaske (Waynesburg, Pa. / Jefferson-Morgan), doubled, walked and a stole a base.
While so many new faces shined in their first home contest as Yellow Jackets, junior
Sydney Senay (Canonsburg, Pa. / Canon-McMillan) struck the biggest blow of the game with a third-inning grand slam that put her team ahead for good at 5-1. Senay ended the game with a two-run double that gave her RBIs five and six and put her squad up 9-1 in the sixth.
Brookman logged another two-hit performance (2-4). After her four-knock performance in the split, she currently leads the PAC in batting average (.563), slugging (.875), on-base percentage (.588), OPS (1.463) and triples (3).
Senay also went two-for-four with her two extra-base hits, half-dozen RBIs and a run scored.
Freshman
Autumn Stemple (Morgantown, W.Va. / University) improved to 3-1 on the year and dropped her PAC-best ERA to 0.89 with a complete-game victory. She allowed one unearned run on a double, two singles and one walk, while striking out six Redhawks.
Waynesburg is scheduled to open PAC play on Sunday, March 26, when it travels to Thiel for a doubleheader. First pitch is scheduled to be thrown at 3 p.m.
