Brandywine Splits Home-Opening Doubleheader

ASTON, Pa. -- Penn State Brandywine blanked Maine-Presque Isle 8-0 in game one, but UMPI outslugged Brandywine 14-10 in game two as the teams split a frigid, rainy softball doubleheader at Maple Zone on Monday afternoon.

Brandywine (2-4) scored during all four of its at-bats and Katie DeStefano (Kennett Square, Pa./Kennett) fired a complete game shutout during the opener. DeStefano limited the Owls to four hits and struck out a pair in 5.0 innings to win her second game of the season.

At the plate, Rachel Cherubini (Pottstown, Pa./Pottsgrove) collected two hits and knocked in three runs, while Arianna Segich (Ocean City, N.J./Ocean City), Julie Foeldes (Kendall Park, N.J./South Brunswick) and Katy Steffen (Downingtown, Pa./Downingtown West) all recorded one hit and scored twice.

Segich led off the bottom of the first with a triple and scored on Cherubini's base hit to open the scoring. One inning later, Cherubini added a two-run single after Ashley Dotey (Middlesex, N.J./Middlesex) singled in Haley Grossi (Monmouth, N.J./South Brunswick) with the game's second run.

Maddie Malfara (Ardsley, Pa./Abington) added an RBI single in the third, while Foeldes capped the scoring with a two-run home run over the center field fence to put Brandywine ahead 8-0 in the fourth inning.

Game two started off the same way for the Lions as Brandywine opened up a four-run lead after two innings. Segich began the first inning with a single and came around to score when Steffen roped a base hit to left field three batters later.

Cherubini's RBI double completed a three-run second frame for the Lions, but Maine-Presque Isle stormed back, scoring 14 times during its next three times at bat.

Nikki Velez (Gloucester, N.J./Gloucester City) got a fifth-inning rally started by plating Grossi with a double. Three batters later, Segich tripled, clearing the bases, to make the score 14-8. After Segich scored via an Owl error, Grossi legged out an infield single to shortstop, scoring Steffen. Brandywine loaded the bases again and brought the game-tying run to the plate, but third baseman Ana Diaz dove to snare Malfara's line drive, ending the rally.

Velez went 3-for-3 at the plate and scored twice, while Foeldes and Grossi each tallied a pair of hits. Segich collected four RBI, two hits and two runs scored. DeStefano took the loss in game two after being charged with 14 runs (eight earned) on nine hits, while striking out one.

Brandywine hosts the College of St. Joseph (Vt.) on Friday afternoon at Maple Zone beginning at 3:00 pm.