PEMBROKE, N.C. – After an off day Sunday due to rain, No. 15 Kutztown softball could finally conclude its regular season opening trip down south. KU used a six-run, sixth inning to come back and defeat host UNC Pembroke 9-3 in the opening game Monday afternoon, before dropping the second game, 5-0, to Tusculum.
 
Sarah Harvey (Swanton, Vt./Missisquoi Valley Union), Sarah Harvat (Bangor, Pa./Bangor) and Naya Darnowski (Manchester, N.J./Manchester Township) all finished the day with three hits. Harvey went 3-for-4 with three runs scored in the opener and started inside the circle in game two. Haley Gravish (Hamburg, Pa./Hamburg) earned her first career victory, throwing a complete game in the win over the Braves.
 
Kutztown will have a week off before returning to action in the Francis Merion Patriot Invitational in Florence, S.C., on Saturday, Feb. 18, and Sunday, Feb. 19. KU takes on Adelphi and Francis Merion for two games both days.
 
Kutztown 9, UNC Pembroke 3
 
Kutztown erupted for six runs and six hits and batted around the lineup in the top of the sixth inning to erase a 3-2 deficit. Hannah Reimel (Warminster, Pa./William Tennent), Kristin Geesey (Bainbridge, Pa./Elizabethtown), Darnowski, Brianna Stocklin (Deptford, N.J./Deptford Township) and Jenna Martinez (Oracle, Ariz./Canyon del Oro) each recorded an RBI in the frame.
 
KU scored the game's opening run in the top of the third as Stocklin stole second and the throw down got away from the Braves shortstop to give KU the 1-0 lead. Pembroke tied it in the bottom-half of the third via a two-run home run.
 
Harvat earned her first RBI of the season in the top of the fourth inning on a single to right field that scored Sarah Harvey (Swanton, Vt./Missisquoi Valley Union) to tie the score 2-2. The Braves took back the lead in the bottom of the fifth, 3-2, on a fielder's choice, before KU's big sixth inning.
 
Gravish threw a complete game, allowing just the three runs, while striking out three for the victory.
 
Tusculum 5, Kutztown 0
 
KU was held to just four hits total. Sophia Collins (Lansdale, Pa./North Penn) had her first hit of the day, while Stocklin, Reimel and Darnowski also added a hit each.
 
The Pioneers scored the opening run in the top of the third inning. The score remained 1-0 until the seventh when Tusculum scored four times in the seventh to add some insurance.

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