Kutztown University Athletics

STROUDSBURG, Pa. – Third-seeded Kutztown softball defeated host and second-seeded East Stroudsburg Saturday afternoon for the second time in as many days to advance out of the NCAA Atlantic Regional pod and head to Super Regionals for the third straight season and fourth out of the last five.
 
The Golden Bears (38-20 overall), who were the home team on the scoreboard, took down the Warriors (38-21) 8-2 Saturday at Creekview Park in Stroudsburg, to complete a perfect 3-0 weekend at regionals. KU also beat ESU on Friday 5-2 and was victorious over West Chester 8-4 in the opening game Thursday.
 
In the other regional pod, hosted by the top seed Shippensburg, fifth-seeded Glenville State out of the Mountain East Conference, came out on top of the pod after winning back-to-back games Saturday over MEC foe Charleston.
 
Kutztown and Glenville State will now meet in the best-of-three Super Regional next week at North Campus Field, as KU is the higher seed. Game one will be Thursday, May 21, and game two and three (if necessary) will be Friday.
 
It is the seventh time overall that the Maroon and Gold have reached the Super Regional round, having advanced to NCAA Championships twice, in 2012 and 2013.
 
Senior pitcher Amanda Slabicki (Langhorne, Pa./Neshaminy) finished off her perfect weekend inside the circle and earned her third victory in as many starts. She threw a complete game, allowing six hits and two runs, striking out five batters for her ninth win of the season.
 
Freshman Ashley Schulz (Oreland, Pa./Springfield) had the big day at the plate for the Golden Bears, going 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles and an RBI, while also scoring a run. Both Emily Henn (Matamoras, Pa./Delaware Valley) and Jenna Piatkiewicz (Fogelsville, Pa./Parkland) finished with two hits and two RBIs, combining to score three runs. Each of Alexa Stevens (Jefferson Township, Pa./North Pocono) and Jamie Madara (Levittown, Pa./Academy of the New Church) tallied two hits, with Madara adding an RBI and two runs scored. Morgan Kocher (Warminster, Pa./William Tennent) and Samantha Paetow (Fayetteville, Pa./Chambersburg) both ended with a hit, Kocher's bringing two RBIs with it.
 
On Saturday, East Stroudsburg got on the scoreboard first with a run in the top of the first inning, due to a KU defensive error. The score remained 1-0 until the bottom of the fourth when the Kutztown lineup woke up and combined to score its eight runs in the final three innings, three coming in the fourth, all with two outs. Piatkiewicz and Schulz ripped back-to-back RBI doubles, with the former's a two-run strike to take a 3-1 lead.
 
In the fifth, it was back-to-back doubles again as Madara and then Henn added KU's fourth run of the game. The Maroon and Gold added four more insurance runs in the sixth as Madara and Henn recorded run-scoring singles and then Kocher laced a two-run single to cap the scoring.
 
East Stroudsburg would tack on a run in the seventh, but Slabicki held the lineup at bay, just as she did the day before.

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