KUTZTOWN, Pa. – Kutztown softball needed a breakout day offensively and the lineup delivered Saturday afternoon to the tune of 17 runs in two games, sweeping Mansfield in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference doubleheader at North Campus Field.
 
The Golden Bears (17-12 overall, 5-5 PSAC) won game one 8-0 in five innings and took game two 9-0 in five innings. They combined for 15 hits.
 
Naya Darnowski (Manchester, N.J./Manchester Township) went 3-for-3 with five RBIs and scored three runs for the Maroon and Gold. Brianna Stocklin (Deptford, N.J./Deptford Township), Kristin Geesey (Bainbridge, Pa./Elizabethtown), Jenna Piatkiewicz (Fogelsville, Pa./Parkland) and Emily Henn (Matamoras, Pa./Delaware Valley) all finished with two hits, with Henn adding four RBIs and Piatkiewicz two RBIs.
 
Natalee Harvey (Swanton, Vt./Missisquoi Valley Union) started game one and threw all five innings, allowing just two hits and struck out five. Haley Gravish (Hamburg, Pa./Hamburg) got the ball for game two and went the distance, giving up three hits and also striking out five batters. Both Harvey and Gravish earned win number eight on the season.
 
Kutztown will remain at home for its next doubleheader when it takes on West Chester on Tuesday, April 2, with game one scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
 
Kutztown 8, Mansfield 0 (5 inn.)
 
It took a couple of innings to get going, but the Kutztown lineup finally woke up at North Campus Field after a dull Friday doubleheader with Bloomsburg.
 
After two scoreless innings, Kutztown combined to score eight runs in the next three and Harvey controlled the game inside the circle to allow the Golden Bears to bounce back with an 8-0, shutout victory in just five innings.
 
Darnowski came up clutch with the big hit in the bottom of the third inning as she sparked the offense with a two-run triple the opposite way to right field that scored pinch runner Aysha Gibbs (Mount Joy, Pa./Donegal) and Sarah Harvat (Bangor, Pa./Bangor). It was the first triple of the season for the junior and second of her career. Harvat and Hannah Reimel (Warminster, Pa./William Tennent) both singled to begin the frame. Stocklin then brought home Darnowski with a run-scoring single the next batter and a 3-0 lead.
 
KU then had four runs come across the plate in the fourth. The inning was aided by a Mountaineers fielding error, two walks and a wild pitch before Darnowski once again helped out her team with her bat, hitting a deep sacrifice fly to right field that brought home both Harvat and Reimel. Stocklin followed with a solo home run and a 7-0 advantage, the first long ball on the year for the junior.
 
In the bottom of the fifth inning, needing just one run to end the game early, Geesey stepped up to the plate with two outs and Morgan Slomkowski (Toms River, N.J./Toms River East) on second base, after getting hit by a pitch and then stealing second. Geesey had the game-clinching hit, a single to right center field, scoring Slomkowski from second.
 
Kutztown 9, Mansfield 0 (5 inn.)
 
Kutztown scored in all but the second inning and got off to a faster start than in the opener, recording the game's opening run in the bottom of the first inning when Stocklin came home on a wild pitch. KU had a hit by pitch (Stocklin) and reached on a fielding error (Piatkiewicz) and then moved around on stolen bases and a wild pitch to open up a 1-0 advantage.
 
Following a scoreless second inning, Piatkiewicz and Henn had back-to-back RBI hits in the bottom of the third to push the lead to 3-0 after three. Geesey got things started in the clinching fourth inning with a single to center field. Pinch runner Ella McNeff (Factoryville, Pa./Tunkhannock) advanced to third two batters later when freshman Peyton Parker (Barrie, Ont./Barrie North Collegiate) pinch hit and earned her first career hit, a double to left field. Darnowski followed with a run-scoring single, Stocklin reached on a field error by the second baseman and Piatkiewicz got on base again with an RBI single up the middle and a 6-0 KU lead.
 
The game was put into the mercy rule the next batter as the freshman Henn homered to left center for a three-run shot, her fourth on the year.
 
Gravish sat down the Mountaineers in order each of the first three innings. They picked up their first hit on a single in the top of the fourth and put runners on first and second base with two singles in the fifth, but Gravish struck out two in-a-row to seal the victory.

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