WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The 21st-ranked Kutztown softball team suffered its first defeat of the 2025 regular season after 11 straight wins to open the year, but responded as a nationally-ranked team would and won the next game in dramatic fashion to even the two-game set Friday evening at Palm Beach Atlantic. PBA won game one 1-0 and KU took game two 5-3.
The Golden Bears (12-1 overall) had the longest win streak since the 2007 team won 22 in-a-row.
Sarah Harvat (Bangor, Pa./Bangor) led the offense on the day, going 4-for-6 at the plate with an RBI.
Alexa Stevens (Covington Township, Pa./North Pocono) and
Samantha Paetow (Fayetteville, Pa./Chambersburg) both finished with two hits.
Morgan Slomkowski (Toms River, N.J./Toms River East),
Kristin Geesey (Bainbridge, Pa./Elizabethtown) and
Jenna Piatkiewicz (Fogelsville, Pa./Parkland) each had a hit and an RBI.
Natalee Harvey (Swanton, Vt./Missisquoi Valley Union) threw a complete game for the victory in game two. She is now 2-0 on the season inside the circle.
Kutztown will have a mixed doubleheader tomorrow, Saturday, March 8. KU will first take on Caldwell at 2 p.m., followed by a game with host Barry at 5 p.m. Both games are in Miami Shores, Fla., at Barry University.
Palm Beach Atlantic 1, Kutztown 0
For the first time this season, the Kutztown bats were shutout. KU came in averaging a little less than nine runs per game in the 11 games played. But Palm Beach Atlantic starting pitcher, Lacy Marty, kept the Golden Bears off the scoreboard, allowing just four hits, throwing 49 pitches.
Haley Gravish (Hamburg, Pa./Hamburg) was just as effective as the senior also gave up just four hits, but two of them came in the pivotal bottom of the fifth inning that decided the game. The Sailfish led off the frame with a double to left field and two batters later, brought her in on a single for the lone run.
Gravish finished with three strikeouts.
Emily Henn (Matamoras, Pa./Delaware Valley), Stevens, Harvat and Geesey each tallied a hit.
Kutztown 5, Palm Beach Atlantic 3
Just like what happened in the opener, Kutztown fell behind in the fifth inning as Palm Beach Atlantic scored first and brought home three runs.
But this time around, the Maroon and Gold answered with their first runs of the day, two in the top of the sixth inning and then three more in the seventh, that helped them take the game.
After the Sailfish recorded the three-run bottom of the fifth, the Golden Bears needed something to happen, and quick. Slomkowski answered the call with a one-out, solo home run, her Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-leading sixth of the season, to put her team on the scoreboard. Paetow reached base thanks to an error one batter later, and then Harvat followed that up with a double the opposite way to right field to put runners at first and second. Geesey brought in KU's second run on an RBI groundout.
Palm Beach Atlantic recorded the first two outs of the top of the seventh and were one away from the sweep, but Stevens got on base via a single and then advanced to second after a Slomkowski walk. Piatkiewicz delivered the game-tying hit to right field to bring around Stevens and send Slomkowski to third, which proved key as the junior scored on a wild pitch the next batter for the game-deciding run. Harvat added some insurance with another double that brought around Piatkiewicz.
Harvey, holding the lead for the first time all game, shut the door on the Sailfish 1-2-3 in the bottom of the seventh.
