KUTZTOWN, Pa. – No. 16 Kutztown softball came up clutch in both games Friday afternoon as KU trailed in each game late and rallied to sweep Bloomsburg in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Eastern Division doubleheader at North Campus Field.
 
The Golden Bears (21-6 overall, 5-3 PSAC) won game one 2-1 in eight innings and then came out on top 3-2 in game two.
 
Junior third baseman Morgan Slomkowski (Toms River, N.J./Toms River East) receives the headlines in both games as she doubled down the left field line to bring home the winning run in Emily Henn (Matamoras, Pa./Delaware Valley) in the eighth inning of the opener and then notched another late-inning double in the nightcap, this time a two-run, two-bagger in the bottom of the sixth to tie the score at 2-2 before Samantha Paetow (Fayetteville, Pa./Chambersburg) followed right up with a run-scoring single for the 3-2 advantage.
 
Slomkowski finished with three hits and two RBIs and Brianna Stocklin (Deptford, N.J./Deptford Township) recorded three hits, an RBI and scored a run. Both Paetow and Henn added two hits each.
 
Haley Gravish (Hamburg, Pa./Hamburg) earned the win in both games inside the circle to improve her record to 12-3.
 
Kutztown is right back out on North Campus Field for another PSAC East doubleheader, this one against Lock Haven tomorrow, Saturday, March 29, with game one set to begin at 1 p.m.
 
Kutztown 2, Bloomsburg 1 (8 inn.)
 
Kutztown's late heroics secured the opening game victory as, with its backs against the wall with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, KU, in particular Stocklin, came through for her team as her RBI single up the middle brought around pinch runner Taylor Gearhart (Newtown, Pa./Council Rock North) to tie the score at 1-1 and send the game to extra innings. Paetow led off the frame with a single and then was ran for by Gearhart. After Sarah Harvat (Bangor, Pa./Bangor) was hit by a pitch to put runners at first and second, Bloomsburg ace Callie Sowers recorded two straight outs to put her team within one out of winning. But Stocklin delivered when it mattered most.
 
Then in the bottom of the eighth, Henn reached on an error, advanced to second on a wild pitch the follow batter, and then came around to score on a Slomkowski RBI double down the left field line to allow the Golden Bears to walk it off.
 
The Maroon and Gold were doubled up in hits, 10-5, but starting pitcher Abbey Wagner (Quakertown, Pa./Qaukertown) and Gravish stranded runners in multiple innings. Slomkowski recorded two hits and each of Stocklin, Henn and Paetow had one.
 
Wagner threw seven innings and only allowed one run. Gravish entered a tie game in the top of the eighth and recorded three outs, giving up just one hit, earning the victory. Sowers, who fell to 7-3 on the season, was recently named to the NFCA DII Pitcher of the Year watchlist. Her line was 7.1 innings, five hits and two runs, one earned, striking out five.
 
Kutztown 3, Bloomsburg 2
 
It was almost a carbon copy of game one, but Kutztown overcame a sixth-inning deficit to tie and then take the lead with a three-run, bottom of the sixth inning. And just like in the opener, Slomkowski was a big part of the rally. Her double to left center field scored two runs and erased a 2-0 deficit to tie the score at 2-2.
 
The junior then advanced to second base on a wild pitch and scored one pitch later on a Paetow RBI single the other way through the right side to give KU its first lead of the game, 3-2, one that it would hold onto as Gravish got the final three outs in the top of the seventh.
 
Stocklin tallied two of her team's five hits and all of Henn, Slomkowski and Paetow contributed one.
 
Gravish threw all seven innings and allowed just five hits and two runs.

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