Kutztown University Athletics

STROUDSBURG, Pa. – Unlike in its last meeting, Kutztown raced out to an early, sizeable lead, and was able to do enough to hold on to a late rally from West Chester, winning its NCAA Atlantic Regional opening game 8-4 Thursday afternoon at Creekview Park in Stroudsburg.
 
The third-seeded Golden Bears (36-20 overall), who fell to the sixth-seeded Golden Rams (30-26) 9-5, just about one week ago at the PSAC Championships in Binghampton, N.Y., last Wednesday, May 6, made sure to jump on top early. They had a three-run, bottom of the first inning and then added four more runs in the fourth inning to take a 7-0 lead after four.
 
WCU responded with four runs of its own in the top of the fifth to cut its advantage to just three (7-4), but the Maroon and Gold added another insurance run in the bottom of the sixth, and Amanda Slabicki (Langhorne, Pa./Neshaminy) and Haley Gravish (Hamburg, Pa./Hamburg) combined to throw seven innings and help their team earn the victory. Slabicki started inside the circle and went four innings, allowing just two earned runs to pick up the win, her seventh of the season. Gravish threw the final three frames and gave up just two hits while striking out three batters for the save, her second on the year.
 
Kutztown finished with nine hits, led by two each from Emily Henn (Matamoras, Pa./Delaware Valley) and Ashley Schulz (Oreland, Pa./Springfield), who also both scored twice, with Henn adding two RBIs on a home run in the fourth inning. Once again, when the junior center fielder gets on base, good things happen for the KU lineup. She led off in the bottom of the first with a base hit to left field. Three batters later, after stealing second, she scored the game's opening run on a Samantha Paetow (Fayetteville, Pa./Chambersburg) RBI single to center field. Morgan Slomkowski (Toms River, N.J./Toms River East) followed with a sacrifice fly and RBI, bringing around Alexa Stevens (Jefferson Township, Pa./North Pocono), who was hit by a pitch earlier, and then Jenna Piatkiewicz (Fogelsville, Pa./Parkland) capped the inning the next batter with a run-scoring double to left that scored Paetow and gave the Golden Bears a 3-0 lead after one.
 
In the four-run bottom of the fourth inning, KU started all of its magic with two outs, as the first two batters of the frame could not reach safely. But Schulz started it with a single, followed by a hit by pitch to Taylor Gearhart (Newtown, Pa./Council Rock North), a two-run double by Sophia Collins (Lansdale, Pa./North Penn) and then the two-run long ball from Henn, as the Maroon and Gold went ahead 7-0.
 
West Chester scored four runs on four hits and was aided by a defensive error in the top of the fifth.
 
Morgan Kocher (Warminster, Pa./William Tennent) recorded an RBI sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth to conclude the scoring for both teams.
 
Caitlin Ashley (Limerick, Pa./Spring-Ford) joined Kocher, Paetow, Collins and Piatkiewicz with a hit each.
 
The Golden Bears are in the NCAA Tournament for the sixth straight season and they have won at least one game at NCAAs each of the six seasons.
 
Kutztown will now take on host East Stroudsburg, the second seed, tomorrow, Friday, May 15, at 10 a.m., back at Creekview Park. The winner will advance to Saturday, while the losing team will play again at 3 p.m., in an elimination game.

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