Brandywine Tops Cedar Crest 6-5 In Season Opener

Brandywine Tops Cedar Crest 6-5 In Season Opener

ASTON, Pa. -- Penn State Brandywine opened its ninth season of softball by rallying to defeat Cedar Crest 6-5 on Wednesday afternoon at Maple Zone. Game two called for darkness with Brandywine leading 1-0 after three innings of play.

Game One: Penn State Brandywine 6, Cedar Crest 5

Brandywine opened the scoring in game one as Meghan Ferry (Gloucester City, N.J./Gloucester City) legged out an infield single, stole second and scored on Payton Landis' (Coatesville, Pa./Coatesville) two-out double in the first inning.

Cedar Crest, which won two games in the NCAA Tournament in 2021, evened the count with a second-inning run and then took the lead one frame later by plating three runs.

Gianna Terpolilli (Hammonton, N.J./Our Lady of Mercy Academy) and Ferry recorded back-to-back singles to begin a two-run bottom of the third inning for the Lions. Terpolilli crossed home on a groundout, while Ferry scored on Karly Rees' (Oxford, Pa./Oxford) base hit as the Lions pulled within one.

After both teams added a run in the fourth, Brandywine rallied to take the lead in the fifth inning. Taylor D'Attilio (Hammonton, N.J./Cedar Creek) doubled to drive in Rees, who started the inning with a single, for the game-tying run. One batter later, Jess James (Yardley, Pa./Pennsbury) delivered a single that plated Destiny Brophy (Bristol, Pa./Bristol) with the go-ahead run.

Rebecca Halford (Garnet Valley, Pa./Garnet Valley) held the Falcons off the scoreboard the rest of the way to give Brandywine its third season-opening win in the last four years. Halford fired 3.0 scoreless innings of relief and struck out two, earning the win in the circle.

Brophy, Ferry and Rees all provided two hits for Brandywine, which tallied 12 knocks overall. Ferry also scored twice and stole a base, while Landis drove in two runs.

Game Two: Penn State Brandywine 1, Cedar Crest 0

Halford fired three more scoreless innings and yielded just one hit before the game was halted by darkness.

Landis delivered a sacrifice fly that scored Ferry during the first inning to account for the lone run scored.

Brandywine begins its Spring Break trip in Florida on Saturday against Mount Union (12:00 pm) and Delaware Valley (2:15 pm).