WINTER HAVEN, Fla. -- The Kutztown University softball team was far from alone in having its 2020 season come to a premature end, but the Golden Bears made the best of it on a sun-soaked Saturday at the DiamondPlex in Winter Haven, Florida.
 
Kutztown swept Edinboro by scores of 5-3 and 7-4 to finish the year with a 15-7 record after the NCAA announced, Thursday, it was canceling all remaining winter and spring championships and the PSAC followed suit, Friday, shuttering its spring sports schedule due to coronavirus precautions.
 
Saturday's victories pushed 33rd-year head coach Judy Lawes within eight wins of becoming the 39th coach in NCAA history across all divisions to record 1,000 career victories. Lawes is the sixth winningest active coach and 15th winningest coach overall in Division II.
 
A bit of team history was also made in game two when sophomore Bridget Bailey (Norwood, Pa./Interboro) came on late to slam the door for her fourth save in just 22 games, setting a new program single-season record.
 
GAME 1
Kutztown 5, Edinboro 3
 
Kutztown struck for five runs between the second and fourth innings to hold off the Fighting Scots, 5-3, in game one.
 
Jolene Teller's two-out RBI single in the top of the first gave an Edinboro team looking for its first win of the season a quick lead, but the Golden Bears scored three times in the second and never relinquished their advantage.
 
Alyssa Donato (Cedarville, N.J./Cumberland Regional), Amber Brugger (Levittown, Pa./Neshaminy) and Kiera Brown (Nanticoke, Pa./Greater Nanticoke Area) each connected for a double as KU (14-7) went in front. Brugger's gapper plated Jenna Lipowski (Nanticoke, Pa./Greater Nanticoke Area) and Paola Texidor (Reading, Pa./Exeter Township), while Brown's two-bagger to left scored Brugger for a 3-1 Golden Bear lead.
 
The Maroon and Gold expanded its lead to 5-2 in the fourth. Brittany Hubler (Hatboro, Pa./Hatboro-Horsham) singled and moved up to second as Edinboro (0-11) center fielder Lauren Gierlak threw out Taylor Knappenberger (Schnecksville, Pa./Parkland) at the plate with a dart. In trying to throw out Hubler at second, catcher Cheyenne Shughart inadvertently threw the ball into center field, allowing Hubler to come all the way home with Kutztown's fourth run of the afternoon.
 
Two batters later, Hannah Auvil (Baltimore, Md./Sparrows Point) got in on the double parade, smashing a Macy Sral offering down the right field line for KU's fourth of the game. Kate Ostaszewski (Philadelphia, Pa./Archbishop Ryan) scored from first.
 
Teller singled in another run in the fifth and accounted for all three Edinboro RBIs while going 2-for-3. Her teammates couldn't get anything else off Bridget Bailey (Norwood, Pa./Interboro), who struck out five and gave up just three hits in 4.1 innings of relief to collect her sixth win.
 
Donato, Knappenberger and Lipowski were all 2-for-3 for the Bears.
 
GAME 2
Kutztown 7, Edinboro 4
 
The Golden Bears enjoyed their second 11-hit performance of the day and took control over the middle innings to win their finale, 7-4.
 
Four KU players finished with multi-hit games, including Alyssa Donato (Cedarville, N.J./Cumberland Regional) and Kate Ostaszewski (Philadelphia, Pa./Archbishop Ryan), who each doubled and drove in runs. Alyssa Oakley (Allentown, Pa./Parkland) was 2-for-3 with a run batted in and the team's lone senior, Taylor Knappenberger (Schnecksville, Pa./Parkland), went 2-for-4.
 
Tied 1-1 after two, Kutztown began to distance itself in the third and fourth innings.
 
An Edinboro (0-12) error with Jenna Lipowski (Nanticoke, Pa./Greater Nanticoke Area) at the plate allowed Paola Texidor (Reading, Pa./Exeter Township) to score the go-ahead run and extended the inning. Donato made the Fighting Scots pay for that with a two-run single to left center that made it 4-1 Bears.
 
Back-to-back wild pitches from Edinboro starter Dylan Claycomb and an Ostaszewski sacrifice fly increased Kutztown's (15-7) advantage to 6-1 in the fourth.
 
Freshman pitcher Sarah Harvey (Swanton, Vt./Missisquoi Valley Union) allowed four runs (three earned) on eight hits and struck out one while recording 20-of-21 outs. She ran into trouble in the bottom of the seventh, though, prompting Lawes to turn to Bailey with two runs across and the tying run coming to the plate in the form of Jolene Teller.
 
Bailey only needed four pitches to get Teller swinging to end the game. It was the Norwood, Pennsylvania, native's program single-season record fourth save of the season and came while Kutztown's shortest season since 1985 (22 games). Bailey also moved into second on KU's career saves list with seven, one back of Katlin Arbogast's (2007-10) eight.
 
Camryn Billig and Shannon Gilbert were both 2-for-4 with an RBI for Edinboro. Claycomb took the loss, though only two of the six runs she gave up in four innings were allowed. Kutztown batters did not strike out a single time against Scots' pitching.