This past weekend was exciting for Coach Kathy Staib and the Elizabethtown College softball team as the season continued with games against Stevenson University and Widener University on the Jays’ home field, resulting in two losses and two wins.
The Jays were victorious in the first game with an ending score of 3-2. After the Blue Jays’ games against Widener were postponed earlier this month for unplayable field conditions, the Jays ended up playing Widener in a doubleheader this past Sunday at The Nest. Widener maintained the lead until the seventh inning when the Jays scored twice. Seniors Lindsey Cooper and Whitney Breneman came through for the Jays with the two runs. Cooper, Breneman and senior Courtney Comstock were the first three hitters for the Jays and each had two hits. Junior Amanda Sheckard hit a leadoff single and ended up scoring on Breneman’s sacrifice fly. Sophomore pitcher Laura Tomasetti was a force against Widener in game one, permitting two runs and eight hits over nine innings with four strikeouts.
The team’s success continued with a 5-1 win over Widener in the second game on Sunday. The game began with a 1-0 Widener lead until Cooper tied it up in the third inning with an RBI. The Blue Jays grabbed a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning with assistance from Sheckard’s run scoring single. The Jays later scored three times, boosting the score to 5-1 with the help of sophomore Becky Becher’s RBI double to left and sophomore Jordan Nowacki’s sacrifice fly. First-year pitcher Keli Krause struck out 10 over seven innings, permitting one run and four hits for Widener.
Even though the Blue Jays were strong on Sunday, they fell to Stevenson in their doubleheader on Saturday afternoon with a loss of 0-10. The first game was a tough one against the Mustangs. Stevenson pitcher Briana Pichalski allowed only three hits throughout the entire game, resulting in a 10-0 shutout. Breneman, Cooper and Krause each recorded a hit, but overall the offense was unable to break Pichalski, which resulted in the striking out of eight Blue Jays. However, Krause did not leave the field without a fight. Krause struck out nine Mustangs, adding to her 57 total strikeouts so far this season.
The second game against Stevenson started out slow and ended badly for the Jays, with a score of 5-13. However, the Blue Jays’ fate changed in the fifth inning which ended with a walk from Comstock. Breneman assisted Comstock with a base-knock, moving Comstock up to second base. The womens’ success continued with a three-run homer by sophomore Kaylee Werner, the top hitter of the game with three out of 12 runs, bringing the score to 6-4, and the Jays were quickly catching up to the Mustangs. Sophomore Payton Marunich’s back-to-back home runs succeeded the Jays to a 6-5 score. However, in the sixth inning, the Mustangs fired back with six more runs, leaving them with 13 runs in the seventh inning.
Head Coach Kathy Staib expects the team to give it their all this season. “As always we look to play every game hard from the first pitch to the last. Being conference opponents these two doubleheaders are of utmost importance to attain our goal of reaching the conference playoffs,” she said. Playing with a team of veterans and young athletes, Krause has mixed feelings about the games. “We get along great and I think that will help us play as a team and win many games. Since it is my first season, I’ve been a little nervous, but all of the girls are encouraging and supportive, so that helps a lot,” Krause said. The 2013 season has not been smooth sailing for the team. “This has been a difficult spring mentally for our student-athletes. Having last played on March 8 due to weather cancellations, the team has had to revert back into the gym for practice,” Staib said.