MIAMI SHORES, Fla. – Kutztown softball played in its longest game since the 2015 season, going 11 innings in the opener on the wrong end of a doubleheader sweep at Barry University Tuesday night.
 
The Golden Bears (5-8 overall) last played in a game that went at least 11 innings on March 22, 2015. The two teams combined for just 15 hits and six runs in the two games with the Buccaneers winning both games 2-1, the opener going 11.
 
Alexa Stevens (Covington Township, Pa./North Pocono) recorded three hits and an RBI, all in the opener. Sarah Harvat (Bangor, Pa./Bangor) and Lauren Petitt (Medford, N.J./Shawnee) both finished with two hits. Amanda Slabicki (Langhorne, Pa./Neshaminy) and Haley Gravish (Hamburg, Pa./Hamburg) both threw well in games one and two, respectively, but the runs just weren't there in support Tuesday night.
 
Kutztown has just one game tomorrow, Wednesday, March 15, as it heads to West Palm Beach, Fla., to take on Palm Beach Atlantic at 6 p.m.
 
Barry 2, Kutztown 1 (11 inn.)
 
In a marathon of a game, Barry had the last at-bats and was able to score the winner on a suicide squeeze in the bottom of the 11th inning as both teams were scoreless through nine innings, combining for just nine hits through that time frame.
 
The teams began putting a runner on second base to begin each inning with the start in the 10th. Stevens came up clutch with a two-out single up the middle that brought home pinch runner Aysha Gibbs (Mount Joy, Pa./Donegal) to break the deadlock. It was her third hit of the game. But the Buccaneers tied the score in the bottom-half of the inning by playing situational softball and bunting with the leadoff to put a runner at third with one out. The second batter then had a run-scoring, sacrifice fly to left field.
 
In the top of the 11th, a grounder back to the pitcher put Jenna Martinez (Oracle, Ariz./Canyon del Oro) into a pickle and was tagged out as the lead runner. From there, KU could not get anything going and was held scoreless. Barry came up in the bottom of the frame needing just one run to win and started the inning just as it did in the previous one, bunting the runner over to third. With one out, the Buccaneers sent the runner home on the pitch and Mac Stone-Folmar got down the bunt into fair territory, allowing the runner to slide in safely to walk it off.
 
Amanda Slabicki (Langhorne, Pa./Neshaminy) threw 10.1 innings and gave up no earned runs, allowing just five hits and striking out five along the way. She did not allow a hit until the bottom of the sixth. Harvat and Kate Ostaszewski (Philadelphia, Pa./Archbishop Ryan) both had a hit.
 
Barry 2, Kutztown 1
 
Three errors by the KU defense proved costly as Barry took advantage of it and scored both of its runs on two second-inning errors by Kutztown.
 
Petitt helped close the gap in half with an RBI single through the right side to bring the score to 2-1 in the top of the third inning. It was her first of two hits in the game. But the Golden Bears managed just two more hits and three base runners the rest of the way as Barry held on for the sweep.
 
Sarah Harvey (Swanton, Vt./Missisquoi Valley Union) started inside the circle and threw 1.1 innings. Haley Gravish (Hamburg, Pa./Hamburg) relieved Harvey and finished the game, giving up just one hit and allowing zero runs. Harvey and Kristin Geesey (Bainbridge, Pa./Elizabethtown) had a hit each for KU.

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