Box Score



Kutztown 11, West Chester 3 (HTML Box Score)
 
Video Interview with Henninger and Lynch
 
QUAKERTOWN, Pa. – The Kutztown University softball team hit two home runs in the first inning and five overall to cruise to an 11-3 victory in six innings over West Chester University on Thursday afternoon in the second round of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Championships at Veterans Park.
 
The Golden Bears (27-21) advance to the semifinals on Friday, May 3 against Bloomsburg University (30-15) beginning at 10 a.m. The winner will move on to the championship game on Saturday, May 4 at 12 p.m. The loser of the KU-BU game will play at 4 p.m. on Friday to face the winner of Thursday's elimination game between Shippensburg and West Chester.
 
Four different players hit home runs for Kutztown. Senior Nicole Henninger (Reading, PA./Muhlenberg) hit two including what turned out to be the game-winner in the first inning and a three-run bomb in the sixth inning that ultimately ended the game after six innings.
 
Junior Colleen Smith (Islip Terrace, N.Y./East Islip (Hofstra)) and senior Katie Lynch (Willow Street, PA/Lampeter-Strasburg) each hit three-run homers to left field, and senior Brianna Knipe (Bethlehem, PA/Liberty) hit a solo shot to right center field.
 
Kutztown struck for four runs in the first inning. On a 1-2 count, Smith belted a three-run bomb the opposite way to left field to give KU a 3-0 lead. It was her team-leading 12th home run of the season and first in 18 games since the teams' home opener against East Stroudsburg on April 5.
 
Two batters later, Henninger hit a high fly to center field that carried over the wall to give KU a 4-0 advantage. It was her second home run in as many at-bats including her game-winning grand slam in her final at-bat against Mercyhurst on Wednesday.
 
With two runners on and two outs in the second, Lynch fouled off five pitches in a 10-pitch at-bat that resulted a deep home run down the left field line to extend Kutztown's lead to seven. Lynch has hit three homers in her last five games after not hitting any in the first 45 games of the season.
 
Knipe led off the third inning with a home run to right center field on a full count. West Chester starting pitcher Devon Utterback came into the game as West Chester's top starter and only allowed five home runs all year. On Thursday, Kutztown hit four home runs in its first 13 at-bats.
 
West Chester rallied back with three unanswered runs. It scored an unearned run off KU pitcher Dominique Ficara (Swedesboro, N.J./Kingsway Regional (Hofstra)) in the third on a wild pitch combined with a throwing error by Lynch behind the plate.
 
It also tacked on two in the fourth on a pair of RBI singles and was threatening to cause even more damage in the inning. Ficara was relieved by Mary Kociencki (Columbia, N.J./Sparta ) with one out in the fourth and two runners in scoring position. Kociencki ended the threat by striking out the final two batters of the inning on full counts.
 
Henninger's second home run came in the sixth inning after Lynch and Maria Isgro (Galloway, NJ/Absegami) singled to reach base.
 
Ficara pitched 3.1 innings as one of her three runs allowed were earned. She struck out two batters and gave up four hits. Kociencki picked up her 12th win of the season with 2.2 innings of work and sat down all eight of the batters she faced.
 
Kutztown has not faced Bloomsburg this season, but fell to the Huskies 1-0 in the second round of the conference tournament last season.