Brandywine Takes Fourth At USCAA Softball World Series

AKRON, Ohio – Penn State Brandywine saw its season come to an end on Wednesday afternoon at the USCAA Softball World Series after suffering a 4-1 defeat to NHTI at Firestone Stadium. The Lions placed fourth at the national tournament, one of the top finishes by any Penn State University Athletic Conference softball teams in history at the World Series.

Brandywine, which entered the 10-team tournament as the 10 seed, completed its third season of varsity softball with a record of 25-18. After losing their first 10 games to begin the season, the Lions bounced back to win 25-of-33 contests to end the year, including three over the last three days at the USCAA Tournament. Following a ninth-place showing at last year's USCAA World Series, Brandywine's No. 4 finish became the top placement by a Brandywine team in any sport at a USCAA national tournament.

Arianna Segich (Ocean City, N.J./Ocean City) extended her hitting streak to 10 games with a leadoff bunt single in the fourth. She moved to second after stealing a base for the 16^th consecutive game and then advanced to third on Julia Allman's (Broomall, Pa./Marple Newtown) sacrifice bunt. Robyn Gannon (Lansdowne, Pa./Archibishop Prendergast) set down a squeeze bunt that allowed Segich to score with Brandywine's lone run.

Segich finished her freshman season as the national leader in runs scored (50) and tied for the USCAA lead with 36 stolen bases, while Gannon, a USCAA First Team All-American, was fifth in runs scored (37) and ninth in hits (49).

Olivia Encarnacion (Glenolden, Pa./Interboro), the PSUAC Pitcher of the Year and honorable mention all-American, took the loss in the circle for Brandywine, falling to 10-7 on the year. She struck out two and allowed four earned runs during her final collegiate start.

The Lions' offense managed just three hits off NHTI pitcher Tori Lemay, who struck out 11 batters, while Kate Andritz collected two hits and three runs batted in for the Lynx.

NHTI took the lead in the third before Brandywine tied the score one inning later; however, a run-scoring groundout from Madison Pellerin allowed the Lynx to move back into the lead for good in the fifth.

Brandywine threatened in the sixth with back-to-back singles from Steph Harvey (Berlin, N.J./Eastern Regional) and Maddie Malfara (Ardsley, Pa./Abington), but Lemay retired the next three batters to strand a pair of runners. The Lynx added two insurance runs in the seventh to provide the final margin.