KUTZTOWN, Pa. – It was a take-two Tuesday as the Kutztown softball team won both games of a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Eastern Division doubleheader against No. 14 East Stroudsburg Tuesday afternoon at North Campus Field.
 
The Golden Bears (24-17 overall, 12-10 PSAC) came out on top of the opener 2-1 and then were victorious in the nightcap 3-0 to win the season series over the Warriors (34-12, 16-8) by winning three-out-of-four.
 
Pitching was on point all day as Natalee Harvey (Swanton, Vt./Missisquoi Valley Union) and Haley Gravish (Hamburg, Pa./Hamburg) both threw complete games to earn victories. The duo combined to allow 12 hits, one run and struck out eight.
 
Morgan Slomkowski (Toms River, N.J./Toms River East) and Hannah Reimel (Warminster, Pa./William Tennent) were the heroes of game one, while Slomkowski and Emily Henn (Matamoras, Pa./Delaware Valley) played the role in game No. 2. Slomkowski was 2-for-3 on the day, including a home run and had three RBIs. Reimel and Henn both tallied two hits and an RBI each. Brianna Stocklin (Deptford, N.J./Deptford Township) and Alexa Stevens (Covington Township, Pa./North Pocono) both finished with two hits.
 
Kutztown hits the road for two straight doubleheaders in back-to-back days beginning at Bloomsburg this Friday, April 19, with game one set to start at 2 p.m.
 
Kutztown 2, East Stroudsburg 1
 
RBIs by Slomkowski and Reimel and the pitching of Harvey helped Kutztown squeeze out the one-run victory in the opener.
 
After a scoreless four-and-a-half innings, the Golden Bears finally got on the scoreboard with a run in the bottom of the fifth, coming off the bat of Slomkowski as the sophomore connected on a solo home run, her first long ball since March 7.
 
KU tacked on an all-important insurance run in the bottom of the sixth thanks to a clutch, two-out, run-scoring single to right center field by Reimel and a 2-0 lead.
 
Harvey, who was throwing shutout ball for six-plus innings, got into her first bit of trouble in the top of the seventh. After she got the leadoff batter out on a groundout, Katherine Donaghue pinch hit and hit a solo home run over the left field fence for the Warriors first run of the game. ESU had the tying run on second base with two outs after a double, but Harvey induced a groundout to Kristin Geesey (Bainbridge, Pa./Elizabethtown) for the third and final out of the game.
 
Kutztown 3, East Stroudsburg 0
 
Just as it did in game one, Kutztown took an early lead and then used its starting pitcher to take it home to victory.
 
Stevens led off the bottom of the second inning with a double. Two batters later, she came home on an RBI single by Slomkowski for the 1-0 lead.
 
In the bottom of the third, Brianna Hughes (Hatboro, Pa./Upper Moreland) and Naya Darnowksi each singled in two of the first three batters of the frame. Henn then came through with a one-out single that brought around Hughes. Three batters later, with the bases loaded, Slomkowski was hit by a pitch, the second time on the day she took a ball to the body, and that brought home Darnowski for the 3-0 advantage.
 
East Stroudsburg brought the tying run to the plate with two outs in the top of the seventh inning, but Gravish got a fly out to clinch the sweep.

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