Brandywine Bests Hazleton In First-Place Showdown

MEDIA, Pa. -- Penn State Brandywine claimed three-of-four games during a two-day series with fellow one-loss team Penn State Hazleton, including a pair of victories on Friday afternoon by scores of 9-3 and 3-0. Brandywine now sits alone atop the PSUAC softball standings with a 13-1 league mark, while Hazleton owns a 7-3 conference record.

Katie DeStefano (Kennett Square, Pa./Kennett) relieved injured starting pitchers in both games to earn a pair of wins. DeStefano went the final 3.0 innings of game one, striking out two, while holding Hazleton without a hit. She tossed the final 4.0 frames to combine on the game two shutout with Maura Moser (Northampton, Pa./Northampton Area). DeStefano limited Hazleton to one hit and Moser struck out three and allowed three hits during the first 3.0 innings. DeStefano also tripled twice during six at-bats in two games.

Brandywine gained a 2-0 edge in the opener when Moser singled in Alexa Anderson (West Deptford, N.J./West Deptford) and Julie Foeldes (Kendall Park, N.J./South Brunswick) crossed home on a groundout during the bottom of the second inning.

Hazleton answered with three runs in the third, but DeStefano pushed Julia Allman (Broomall, Pa./Marple Newtown) across home during the bottom of the frame with a groundout that knotted the score.

The Lions blew the game open with four runs in the fourth and two more in the fifth. Nikki Velez (Gloucester, N.J./Gloucester City) sent a two-out single into center field, plating Foeldes and Moser, and Arianna Segich (Ocean City, N.J./Ocean City) followed with a two-run home run, her first of the season, making the score 7-3.

Megan Crisafulli (Kennett Square, Pa./Unionville) and Maddie Malfara (Ardsley, Pa./Abington) added back-to-back RBI singles in the fifth to provide Brandywine's final runs.

Nine different players accounted for Brandywine's 10 hits, including Foeldes, who registered two knocks and scored three times.

Brandywine plated single runs in three-straight innings to build a lead in game two. Stephanie Harvey (Berlin, N.J./Eastern Regional) delivered a two-out single to right-center field, scoring Malfara with the first run of the game in the second inning. Allman added a RBI base hit in the third and Harvey capped the scoring in the fourth with a sacrifice fly.

With hits in both games Friday, Segich pushed her hitting streak to eight games, while DeStefano extended her streak of consecutive games with a hit to six.

Brandywine (15-9, 13-1 PSUAC) plays three-straight non-conference doubleheader beginning Monday at Widener (4:00 pm).