QUAKERTOWN, Pa. – After winning its first two games of the 2024 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championship Tournament, Kutztown softball dropped back-to-back games Friday to West Chester and then East Stroudsburg, ending its run at Veterans Park in Quakertown.
The Golden Bears (33-22 overall) began Friday morning in the winners bracket final, but lost to the Golden Rams (33-20) 9-4. After sitting for a game, waiting for the Warriors to beat Seton Hill, No. 15 ESU (45-14) stayed hot and took down KU 9-1 in five innings.
Brianna Stocklin (Deptford, N.J./Deptford Township) finished with three hits on the day and scored a run. Both
Naya Darnowski (Manchester, N.J./Manchester Township) and
Emily Henn (Matamoras, Pa./Delaware Valley) recorded two hits and an RBI.
Brianna Hughes (Hatboro, Pa./Upper Moreland) homered in game one, her second in as many games.
Kutztown will now await to see where and who it will be playing in next week's Atlantic Regional Tournament, which is set to begin Thursday, May 9. KU was third in the final poll this week.
West Chester 9, Kutztown 4
West Chester scored in all but the fourth and seventh innings and continued its unbeaten streak at PSACs.
The Golden Rams (33-20) got out of the gate and recorded two runs in their first at-bats.
Stocklin led off with a single for Kutztown and came around to score her team's first run two pitches later on a double by Darnowski.
West Chester continued to add on with a run in both the top of the second and third innings to go on top 4-1.
In the bottom of the third,
Sarah Harvat (Bangor, Pa./Bangor) and Stocklin tallied back-to-back singles and two batters later, Harvat scored on a sacrifice fly by Henn. The Maroon and Gold cut their deficit to just one at 4-3 in the fourth on a solo home run by Hughes, her second long ball in as many games at Veterans Park.
But that would be as close as Kutztown would get the rest of the way as the Golden Rams brought around two runs in the top of the fifth and three in the sixth to go ahead 9-3.
KU threatened a rally in the bottom of the seventh, bringing six batters to the plate and had two runners on with two outs before a groundout to shortstop ended the game. Pinch hitter,
Jenna Piatkiewicz (Fogelsville, Pa./Parkland), led off the frame with a single back up the middle. Pinch runner,
Leanna Schenk (Roslyn, Pa./Abington), came around to score her team's fourth run of the game after an error by the West Chester shortstop with runners at second and third.
East Stroudsburg 9, Kutztown 1 (5 inn.)
Kutztown was outhit 13-2 and did not record its first hit until the top of the fifth on a
Hannah Reimel (Warminster, Pa./William Tennent) single.
Alexa Stevens (Covington Township, Pa./North Pocono) also singled in the inning, which KU also scored its lone run in with Stevens' RBI.
East Stroudsburg, which had just defeated the Griffins to reach this game, may have benefited from rustiness from the Maroon and Gold, which had to sit for three hours to play after the game with the Golden Rams.
The Warriors came out firing on all cylinders both offensively and defensively. They scored six runs in the bottom of the first inning, including a double and two home runs, batting around in the lineup.
Stocklin walked to lead off the game in the top of the first, but that was the lone base runner until the fifth as ESU starting pitcher, Sarah Davenport showed why she was voted this season's PSAC Pitcher and Rookie of the Year. The freshman, who finished off her team's victory over Seton Hill, threw all five innings, allowing just the two hits and one run, striking out seven.
