WINGATE, N.C. – Kutztown University softball completed a long and grueling 13-games in 7-days spring break trip down south, winning an opening game 10-4 before falling in game two 10-1 Saturday afternoon at Wingate University.
 
The Golden Bears (13-7 overall) went 9-4 this past week, playing in five different cities in Florida before concluding the trip in N.C. They played night games followed by day games, games in wind, rain and heat. It is a trip that will certainly prove to test KU for its run at another Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championship. PSAC play begins Saturday, April 2, at home against East Stroudsburg.
 
Hannah Auvil (Baltimore, Md./Sparrows Point) had three hits on the day, including a home run in game one, and added an RBI and two runs. Kate Ostaszewski (Philadelphia, Pa./Archbishop Ryan), Jenna Lipowski (Nanticoke, Pa./Greater Nanticoke Area), Brianna Hughes (Hatboro, Pa./Upper Moreland), Alyssa Donato (Cedarville, N.J./Cumberland Regional), Hannah Reimel (Warminster, Pa./William Tennent) and Kristin Geesey (Bainbridge, Pa./Elizabethtown) each finished with two hits and at least one RBI. Brianna Stocklin (Deptford, N.J./Deptford Township) also contributed an RBI for KU.
 
Amber Brugger (Levittown, Pa./Neshaminy) earned the victory in game one, winning for the second straight start in as many days. She is now undefeated on the season at 4-0.
 
Kutztown will now have nine days off before its next game, the home opener scheduled for Monday, March 28, against Georgian Court, a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.
 
Kutztown 10, Wingate 4
 
Auvil and Lipowski homered in back-to-back at-bats in the top of the sixth inning to break a 3-3 deadlock, and then Kutztown, ahead by just one heading into the seventh, broke out, scoring half of its total runs in a five-run seventh to secure the opening game victory.
 
Lipowski once again got the scoring going in the seventh with an RBI single. Hughes, Donato and Geesey followed suit, all recording run-scoring singles to cap the Maroon and Gold scoring. Auvil also singled in the inning, following back-to-back walks by Stocklin and Ostaszewski.
 
Kutztown got on the scoreboard first thanks to an RBI double by Reimel, her team-leading eighth double of the season, in the second. The Bulldogs took the lead, however, on a two-run home run by Sydney Kale in the bottom of the fourth. Their lead didn't last long though thanks to a long drive by Donato and a sacrifice fly by Stocklin for a 3-2 advantage. Wingate tied the game back up at 3-3 in the its at-bats before KU's big sixth and seventh innings to control.
 
Brugger won for the fourth time in her last five outings and was able to secure three outs in the final inning. Outside of the middle three innings, Brugger managed the game with a solid start.
 
Wingate 10, Kutztown 1 (five innings)
 
Tired legs from 13 games in seven days began to show for Kutztown.
 
The roles were reversed in game two as Wingate's bats erupted for 10 runs, just as Kutztown's did in the opener. The Bulldogs scored once in each of the first two innings before putting up a five-run inning in the third and a three-run fourth to take care of KU in five.
 
Ostaszewski helped the Golden Bears to their lone run, hitting a home run to left center in the third inning, cutting the deficit to 2-1. It was the senior's third homer this season and second in the last three days.
 
A trio of Brugger, Haley Gravish (Hamburg, Pa./Hamburg) and Jessica Iavarone (Miller Place, N.Y./Miller Place) combined to throw four innings.

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