KUTZTOWN, Pa. – Kutztown softball entered the day needing to sweep a home doubleheader over Glenville State of the Mountain East Conference after falling in game one of the NCAA Division II Atlantic Super Regional best-of-three on Thursday afternoon. KU won the first game of the day Friday, but dropped the second to conclude the 2026 season in Super Regionals for the third consecutive season.
The Golden Bears ended their year with a 39-22 overall record, winning the first game Friday 7-3 before falling in the nightcap 7-3 at North Campus Field. They were the visiting team in both games.
Kutztown will see five student-athletes graduate from the program, exhausting their eligibility. The quintet includes All-PSAC East Second Teamers
Alexa Stevens (Jefferson Township, Pa./North Pocono) and
Haley Gravish (Hamburg, Pa./Hamburg), along with
Jenna Piatkiewicz (Fogelsville, Pa./Parkland),
Sophia Collins (Lansdale, Pa./North Penn) and
Amanda Slabicki (Langhorne, Pa./Neshaminy).
Stevens and freshman
Morgan Kocher (Warminster, Pa./William Tennent) had themselves a day at the plate, both finishing with four hits, including two home runs and a double from Stevens.
Samantha Paetow (Fayetteville, Pa./Chambersburg) and
Jamie Madara (Levittown, Pa./Academy of the New Church) each tallied three hits, Madara homering in the first game.
Emily Henn (Matamoras, Pa./Delaware Valley) and
Ashley Schulz (Oreland, Pa./Springfield) had two hits and Collins and Piatkiewicz added one each.
Slabicki started game one and threw a complete game, allowing just two earned runs to earn her 10th win of the season, a career-high.
Head coach
Judy Lawes will bring back a strong core of field players, led by Henn, the PSAC East Athlete of the Year. Lawes enters next season two wins away from the PSAC's all-time career wins leader.
Kutztown 7, Glenville State 3
It got a little nerve wracking for Kutztown in the first win-or-go-home game as it trailed 1-0 in the second inning and then 3-2 in the sixth. But both times the bats came alive and rallied, scoring two runs in the third and then one in the sixth to tie the game at 3-3 and then rallied for four runs in the top of the seventh to take a commanding 7-3 lead for the opening game victory.
Slabicki once again stepped up for her team as she is now 4-0 in the postseason, with three victories in regionals last week at East Stroudsburg. The senior righty allowed just seven hits and kept the Pioneers off the base paths for most of the game.
The Golden Bears doubled up GVSU in hits, finishing with 14 total, including three home runs and a double. Stevens had one of the HRs and hit the double, while both Collins and Madara recorded a long ball. It was the first of the season and first of the career for Collins. Kocher and Stevens both finished with three hits and Paetow and Madara each had two. Henn, Collins, Schulz and Kraus all had one.
Paetow's single up the middle in the top of the third inning got Kutztown on the scoreboard and into its first lead of the game, bringing home two runs. After Glenville State took back the lead with a run in the each of the third and fourth innings, Madara delivered a solo home run, her third of the season, to tie the score at 3-3. Then the flood gates opened up in the top of the seventh as KU brought eight batters to the plate and recorded four runs on five hits to put itself in position to win.
Slabicki went out in the bottom-half of the seventh and faced the minimum three batters, inducing a ground ball, double play from Madara to Stevens to Schulz to end it.
Glenville State 7, Kutztown 3
Kutztown fell into a large hole and could not dig itself out, as Glenville State scored the game's first seven runs, two in the bottom of the first inning, one in the third and two in both the fourth and fifth and took a 7-0 advantage into the sixth inning.
The Golden Bears got on the scoreboard in the top of the sixth thanks to a solo HR by Stevens to leadoff the frame. They then loaded the bases with just one out, but Pioneers starting pitcher Kylie Burdick got the final two outs without any further damage.
Kutztown once again threatened in the seventh as Piatkiewicz and Kocher led off with back-to-back singles and then Stevens walked to load the bases with nobody out. Paetow recorded a sacrifice fly for an RBI and two batters later, Schulz did the same. But two runs was all KU could muster up as a fly out in the next at-bat ended the game and the season.
