Lions Win a Pair in Home Opener

Lions Win a Pair in Home Opener

ERIE, Pa. – Rachel Miller (North East, PA/North East) went 3-for-4 on the day, while throwing a six-hit shutout in game one to help the Penn State Behrend softball team sweep Pitt-Greensburg 5-0 and 10-2 in Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) action on Saturday.

In their home opener, the Lions (10-10, 7-1 AMCC) managed to finish game two in just five innings to collect a pair of conference wins. Amanda Krolczyk (Union City, PA/Fort LeBoeuf) and Shannon McDonnell (Fayston, VT/Harwood Union) each tallied three hits, and Allania Banta (Waterford, PA/Fort LeBoeuf) made her two hits extra-base ones.

In game one, Krolczyk smacked a two-out double and then scored on McDonnell's double to right field for a 1-0 lead after the first inning.

Behrend added two more runs in the second inning. Julia Luke (Waterford, PA/Fort LeBoeuf) walked and Leah Griffin (Springboro, PA/Conneaut Valley) singles and stole second. Kelsey Heinrich (Brookville, PA/Brookville) hit a sacrifice fly, before Griffin scored on a wild pitch for a 3-0 advantage.

The final two runs came in the fourth inning. Krolczyk tallied a RBI off a single to right field to score Heinrich and McDonnell picked up another RBI with a single to knock in Miller, who reached on a single down left-field line.

The Lions only needed six hits to score 10 runs in game two to secure a 10-2 win in five innings of work. Behrend also took advantage of 10 errors to second inning to plate seven runs.

Sarah Blagg (Cranberry Township, PA/Seneca Valley) scored the lone run of the first inning to get the Lions on the board. She reached on an error and scored on a sacrifice bunt attempt by Krolczyk that turned into an error.

The big second inning saw Behrend go through the entire order and take the lead 8-0 after two frames. In the third with two outs, Banta doubled and then came home on Krolczyk's single up the middle to make it 9-0.

The Bobcats avoided the second shut out with a run in the fourth and the Lions responded with their final run in the bottom of the inning. Like the third inning, Behrend had two outs showing and plated Luke with a bases loaded error by Pitt-Greensburg.

Alexa Bupp (Warren, PA/Warren) earned her second win in the circle in the nightcap. She allowed one earned run and just four hits, while striking out four batters.

The Lions return to action on Tuesday at D'Youville. Game times are 3 & 5 p.m.

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