QUAKERTOWN, Pa. – There is something in the air in Quakertown. And the Kutztown University softball team is taking it in. For the third straight game of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) softball championships, KU, the league's leading statistical offense, put together dougle-digit hits and a high-scoring inning. Kutztown ripped 13 hits and used a five-run, seventh inning to dispatch of West Chester University 8-3 Thursday afternoon in a winners bracket semifinal game at Veterans Park.
 
The victory, the third-in-a-row at PSACs, puts the Golden Bears (36-18 overall) in the winners bracket final, where it will take on Lock Haven (29-16-1) tomorrow, Friday, at noon. Win or lose, Kutztown will have another game to play. A win puts KU into the championship game, while a defeat would mean it needs to win a loser's bracket final.
 
In their stay thus far in Quakertown, the Maroon and Gold have amassed 39 hits and scored 32 runs. They have also beaten two NCAA Atlantic Regionally-ranked teams in the Golden Rams (2) and Bloomsburg (8) on Thursday.
 
Kutztown, the road team in this one, opened it up just as it had hoped.
 
Sara Keeny (Warminster, Pa./William Tennent) doubled to center, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Katelyn Ostaszewski (Philadelphia, Pa./Archbishop Ryan), and then scored on an RBI single by Tamara Jennings (Philadelphia, Pa./Nazareth Academy). All in the first three at-bats of the game.
 
1-0 Kutztown.
 
West Chester would get that run back in the bottom-half of the inning, however.
 
But in the leadoff spot of the second inning, Taylor Knappenberger (Schnecksville, Pa./Parkland) made strong contact with the ball and delivered a solo home run to center to put Kutztown back out in front 2-1. Jenna Lipowski (Nanticoke, Pa./Greater Nanticoke Area) went deep in the following inning and the advantage was extended to 3-1 in the third.
 
After that shaky first inning, freshman pitcher Bridget Bailey (Norwood, Pa./Interboro) settled in and started getting outs at a rapid pace. She sat down six straight West Chester batters in the second and third, three via strikeout, and allowed just one more hit through six innings.
 
Still up just 3-1 in the top of the seventh, the Golden Bears knew they needed some insurance runs. And did they ever deliver. 11 batters came to the plate as seven different KU players recorded hits in the inning.
 
Dani Nordyk (Orange, Conn./Amity) led off with a walk, and then ran to third after a double by Keeny. Jennings hit Nordyk home with a single, and then Keeny touched home plate following an RBI base hit by Lipowski. Hannah Auvil (Baltimore, Md./Sparrows Point) singled to put runners on at first and second, and then Knappenberger got them both home via a two-run double. Emily Ostaszewski (Philadelphia, Pa./Archbishop Ryan (C.C. of Philadelphia)) and Nordyk also got into the act, each collecting singles before the Golden Rams finally got three outs.
 
West Chester would get two back on a long ball with one out, but Bailey recorded the final two outs to earn the win, her 18th of the season, second-most in the PSAC.