SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. – The Kutztown and Shepherd softball teams played two eerily similar games to the tone of the same scores with different results, both ending in six innings. The Rams won game one 9-1, while KU won game two 9-1 as the teams split a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference East Division doubleheader Tuesday afternoon in Shepherdstown, W.Va.
 
The Golden Bears (15-10 overall, 3-3 PSAC), just like they did yesterday at Lock Haven, fell in game one with little hitting, but responded in game two as their bats woke up to win the nightcap.
 
Emily Henn (Matamoras, Pa./Delaware Valley) led the lineup with a combined three hits on the day and scored three runs, all in game two. Morgan Slomkowski (Toms River, N.J./Toms River East) finished with two hits and three RBIs and Alexa Stevens (Covington Township, Pa./North Pocono) had a hit and two RBIs.
 
Haley Gravish (Hamburg, Pa./Hamburg), who came on in relief in the second game, threw the final three shutout innings and allowed just two hits with three strikeouts for her team-leading seventh victory.
 
Kutztown will finally make its home debut this Friday, March 29, when it hosts Bloomsburg for a doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m. KU will then welcome Mansfield to North Campus Field on Saturday for two games with game one starting at 1 p.m.
 
Shepherd 9, Kutztown 1 (6 inn.)
 
After a scoreless first inning, Kutztown got on the scoreboard first thanks to an RBI single by Slomkowski, after a base hit by Geesey. Pinch runner Aysha Gibbs (Mount Joy, Pa./Donegal) came around to score. That would be the only run of the game for KU, however.
 
The score remained 1-0 in favor of the Golden Bears until a four-run, bottom of the fourth inning by Shepherd gave it the lead, one which it held the rest of the way. The Rams scored one more in the fifth and four in the bottom of the sixth that allowed them to end the game early thanks to the mercy rule.
 
Kutztown 9, Shepherd 1 (6 inn.)
 
Kutztown scored nine runs on nine hits and was aided by two Shepherd errors.
 
Following the game one defeat, it was important for KU to get off to a good start, and it did just that. Stocklin and Henn both had infield singles within the first three KU batters and then Stevens doubled down the left field line to clear the bases and give her team a 2-0 advantage in the top of the first inning.
 
After a scoreless second, Jenna Piatkiewicz (Fogelsville, Pa./Parkland) led off the top of the third with a single and then scored on a wild pitch three batters later to put the Maroon and Gold up 3-0. The Rams (13-13, 3-5) got on the scoreboard with a run in the bottom-half of the frame with a sacrifice fly.
 
In the fifth, it was Slomkowski who came up with a clutch hit, delivering a two-run double to left field with two outs to push the advantage to 5-1.
 
The Golden Bears were able to enact the mercy rule themselves this game, racing across four runs in the top of the sixth inning, highlighted by an RBI single from Stocklin and an error by Shepherd's right fielder that cleared the bases in a bases loaded situation.
 
Gravish mainly stayed away from any trouble and had the game in hand once she entered in the fourth. Natalee Harvey (Swanton, Vt./Missisquoi Valley Union) started the game and went three innings.

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