Brandywine Finishes Fourth At USCAA World Series

AKRON, Ohio – Penn State Brandywine's season came to an end on Wednesday afternoon as the fifth-seeded Lions dropped a 4-2 decision to No. 3 Carlow in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association Softball World Series. Brandywine finished in fourth place at the national tournament for the second consecutive season and closed out the 2017 campaign with an overall record of 23-15.

The Lions matched the best showing at a national tournament by a team from Brandywine, set by last year's team, by winning a pair of games at Firestone Stadium this week. The fourth-year program has now produced three consecutive seasons of at least 23 victories.

Six different players recorded hits for the Lions, including Julie Foeldes (Kendall Park, N.J./South Brunswick), who produced her third multi-hit effort in four games at the World Series. Foeldes, who went 8-for-14 at the plate in Akron, will enter her senior year needing 16 hits to reach 100 for her career.

Alexa Anderson (West Deptford, N.J./West Deptford), whose walk off single late Tuesday night against Judson helped Brandywine advance to Wednesday's game, reached base in all four at-bats, recording a single, while walking twice and reaching on an error in the seventh.

Senior Julia Allman (Broomall, Pa./Marple Newtown) played her 144^th and final game in a Brandywine uniform. The only student-athlete to have played all four seasons with the team, Allman is the Lions' career leader in hits (124), runs scored (119) and RBI (101).

Brandywine struck first as Megan Crisafulli (Newtown Square, Pa./Unionville) led off the second inning with a base hit and, four batters later, scored on Arianna Segich's (Ocean City, N.J./Ocean City) groundout.

The Lions clung to the one-run lead until the decisive sixth inning when Carlow sent 10 batters to the plate, scoring four times. Brandywine pulled within two during the bottom of the frame as Segich roped a triple to center field, pushing Nikki Velez (Gloucester, N.J./Gloucester City) across home, and had the tying run at the plate with one out in the seventh, but could not get any closer.

Maura Moser (Northampton, Pa./Northampton Area) took the loss for Brandywine after allowing four runs, only one of which was earned, in 5.1 innings. She struck out a pair. Katie DeStefano (Kennett Square, Pa./Kennett) came on in relief during the sixth and fired 1.2 scoreless frames. DeStefano, named second team all-American on Sunday, will also have an opportunity to reach 100 career hits during her senior season as she will enter 2018 with 81 knocks.