Courtesy of John Leisering
ERIE, Pa. The Mt. Aloysius Mounties and the Penn State Behrend Lions softball teams, in an early-season battle for first place in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference AMCC), split a Saturday doubleheader. The Mounties snapped a 1-1 tie with two-out lightning in the seventh of the opener to prevail 4-1. Behrend rebounded with a six-run fourth in the nightcap for an 8-2 win. Mt. Aloysius left Erie with an overall mark of 10-8 and a conference record of 4-2.The Lions finished the day 10-12 and 5-1 respectively.
The first game featured a pitching duel between Mt. Aloysius freshman Sierra Walters (3-1) and Lions junior Kayla Lindberg (Austinburg, OH/Edgewood) (5-4). Both teams scored unearned runs in the third. Freshman infielder Sarah Henninger plated sophomore outfielder Grace Gardini with a two-out single. The run was answered by the Lions in the bottom half when freshman Meghan Petitte scored all the way from first when sophomore Jocelyn McNany's (Cranberry Township, PA/Seneca Valley) outfield flyball was not caught.
The score remained tied until the seventh when the Mounties tallied three times after the first two batters were retired. Sophomore pinch hitter Bella Piacesi stroked a single to right, Gardini singled to left, and the team's leading hitter, sophomore Ella Pearson, tripled to dead center. Pearson continued home when the outfield relay was thrown away. The Lions were retired in order in the seventh.
Walters fanned twelve in going the distance and allowed just one hit, a one-out single by sophomore Jocelyn McNany in the last of the first.
Lindberg fanned nine in the losing effort.
The Lions hitting struggles continued through the first three innings of game two. Held to a first-inning leadoff single by senior Maddie Smith (DuBois, PA/DuBois) - and behind 1-0 - Behrend erupted for seven hits in the fourth, all singles to score six times. Junior Kayla Salvini (McDonald, PA/Fort Cherry), Meghan Petitte (Sugarcreek, OH/Garaway) (2), junior Britney Shaw (St. Marys, PA/St. Marys) and McNany (2) drove in the runs. The Lions stretched the lead to 8-1 with fifth-inning runs-batted-in by Petittle and Shaw.
Mt. Aloysius got the game's final run in the seventh when Pearson tripled, her sixth hit of the twinbill, and scored on an infield out.
Freshman Abby Tingley (Union City, PA/Union City) (3-4) pitched the complete game for the Lions while Mounties starter Madison Hillard (3-3), the first of three hurlers, took the loss.
The Lions will begin a six-game road trip next Tuesday with a non-conference pair at Alfred.
