WAYNESBURG, Pa. (March 23, 2024) – The Waynesburg University softball team opened Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) play with a doubleheader split against Thiel at the Waynesburg University Baseball and Softball Complex on a chilly Saturday afternoon. The Tomcats escaped with a 4-3 win in game one before the Jackets prevailed 2-1 in game two.
Waynesburg moves to 8-5 on the season and 1-1 in PAC league play. Thiel stands at 5-9, 1-1 PAC.
Game 1 – Thiel 4, Waynesburg 3
A four-run fourth inning for the Tomcats proved to be enough to take game one.
Waynesburg struck first with
Bella DeMark (Carnegie, Pa. / Bishop Canevin) scoring on a base hit by
Kayla Gratton (Monroeville, Pa. / Gateway) in the second. The Jackets loaded the bases afterwards but were unable to add on to their lead.
The Tomcats took the lead with a two-run double in the fourth. Thiel added a pair of two-out RBI singles to grew their advantage to 4-1.
Emma Bliss (Uniontown, Pa. / Laurel Highlands) knocked a two-out two-run pinch-hit double in sixth to plate
Jasmine Demaske (Waynesburg, Pa. / Jefferson-Morgan) and pinch runner
Brynn Charnesky (Southmoreland).
Waynesburg loaded the bases with one out in the seventh but a pop out to the catcher and a strikeout ended the ballgame.
Demaske,
Grace Higgins (Canonsburg, Pa. / Canon-McMillan),
Sydney Waryanka (Greensburg, Pa. / Hempfield) and
Alyssa Rager (Washington, Pa. / Trinity) each had two hits.
Sydney Wilson (Pentress, W.Va. / Clay-Battelle) did not allow a run in 3.1 innings of relief.
Game 2 – Waynesburg 2, Thiel 1
The Jackets were walk-off winners in the second of the PAC doubleheader.
Breanna Rice (Morgantown, W.Va. / Morgantown) smacked a line drive into left-center field to bring pinch runner
Kassidy Trimble (Parkersburg, W.Va. / Parkersburg South) in the bottom of the seventh.
Thiel scored an unearned run in the first but that was all Wilson allowed in the ballgame. She earned a complete game win after allowing four hits, no walks and one unearned run. Wilson outdueled Thiel's Becca Landis, who struck out 10 and allowed just one earned run on the day.
Waynesburg tied the game at one in the bottom of the fourth.
Ella Brookman (Washington, Pa. / Chartiers-Houston) doubled to lead off the inning and then scored on an error.
Bliss doubled to lead off the seventh to set up Rice's walk-off heroics.
Brookman and Rice each had two hits in the win.
The Jackets head to Chatham on Tuesday for their first road PAC doubleheader of the season.