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KUTZTOWN, Pa. –
Asja Saito (Pickering, Ontario/Pickering)'s sacrifice fly scored
Justine Rossi (Hazleton, Pa./Hazleton Area) in the 10th inning of game two to give the Kutztown University softball team a sweep over East Stroudsburg University Wednesday afternoon. KU won game one 4-2, and game two 5-4 in 10 innings in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division action in KU's home-opener at North Campus Field.
The wins extended KU's winning streak to nine games.
Starting in the 10th inning of the nightcap, ESU opened the top-half with a runner on second for the international tiebreaker rule. A single up the middle put runners on the corners with no outs. Saito saved a run defensively the following at bat, keeping the runner at third on a groundball. ESU struck out and fouled out to end the inning.
Rossi started on second in the bottom of the 10th.
Bridget Newman (Ardmore, Pa./Haverford) sacrificed Rossi to third, and two batters later, Saito drove a deep fly ball to right to score Rossi and send the Golden Bears (19-8, 4-0 PSAC East) to victory.
Savannah Nierintz (Clifton Heights, Pa./Upper Darby) threw 213 pitches over 14 innings Wednesday. She made her 100th career appearance with her start in the opener and won her 50th career game with four strikeouts. She came on in relief in the fourth inning and threw seven shutout innings with six strikeouts to move to 14-1 on the year.
Her 10 strikeouts on the day moved her into third in school history with 353 in her career.
Cheyenne Jones (Levittown, Pa./Harry S Truman (Northwest Florida State)) gave KU a 3-0 lead in the opener before KU surrendered an out. She drove a three-run homer – her third of the year and first since Feb. 19 – on the first pitch she saw that went over the right-field fence.
ESU cut its deficit to 3-2 through the fourth, but KU added an insurance run off smart base-running by
Angie Carty (Harleysville, Pa./Souderton Area) in the sixth, scoring on a two-out double-steal attempt.
Sara Keeny (Warminster, Pa./William Tennent) stole bases in each game Wednesday, including the 50th of her career, but an 0-for-1 opener with two walks ended a career-high 16-game hitting streak for the sophomore.
Freshman
Gia Santigate (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Joseph by-the-Sea) gave KU a 2-0 lead in the nightcap with a two-run single in the first inning. She drove in three runs in the first three innings as KU led 3-1 through three.
East Stroudsburg (7-14, 1-5) scored three runs in the fourth to take a 4-3 lead, marking KU's first deficit since its final game of spring break on March 17 – a span of five games.
KU was down to its final inning trailing by a run in the seventh.
Tamara Jennings (Philadelphia, Pa./Nazareth Academy) opened the frame with a double, and moved to third on a groundball by Jones.
Gabby Tareila (Limerick, Pa./Spring-Ford), KU's leading hitter this year at .415, plated Jennings and tied the game the following at-bat with an RBI single up the middle to send the game to extras.
It was 1-of-3 runs scored in game two by Jennings.
Kutztown returns to action on Saturday, April 8, with a road matchup at Millersville University beginning at 1 p.m.
