BUFFALO, NY – The No. 3 seed Penn State Behrend softball team earned a 2-0 win over No. 6 Mt. Aloysius and a 3-2 victory against No. 2 Penn State Altoona on the first day of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) Championships on Friday.
The Lions (25-11) went undefeated on day one to advance to the winners bracket and will face No. 1 seed D'Youville in their first game tomorrow at 1 p.m. The winner secures a spot in the championship game on Sunday at 10 a.m.
Sarah Blagg (Cranberry Township, PA/Seneca Valley) hit the game-winning triple in the fourth to clear the bases and score the only three runs Behrend needed to get past Altoona. AJ Nichols (Pittsburgh, PA/Shaler) started the game in the circle and Alexa Bupp (Warren, PA/Warren) finished the final three and one third innings for her fourth win. Each allowed just one earned run.
Faced with two outs in the fourth, Madison Zimmer (Carnegie, PA/Chartiers Valley) singled to right field and Julia Luke (Waterford, PA/Fort LeBoeuf) walked for two runners on. Kelsey Heinrich (Brookville, PA/Brookville) walked to load the bases and Blagg then tripled to right center for a 3-0 lead.
The Altoona Lions got on the board in the bottom of the fourth with their first hit of the game. Altoona rallied in the sixth with two more hits thanks to a triple by Kate Burge and the single by Allison Simpson that knocked her in for a 3-2 score.
Clarissa Keller got her team into scoring position in the seventh with a double to center field, but back-to-back outs gave the Lions a one-run victory and the upset of the No. 2 seed.
In game one, Rachel Miller (North East, PA/North East) picked up her 11th win with a four-hit shutout while fanning four batters. Katie Gozzard (Pittsburgh, PA/Deer Lakes) went 2-for-3 with a double. Shannon McDonnell (Fayston, VT/Harwood Union) and Zimmer each had an RBI.
Behrend scored right away in the first and then added their second run in the fourth. Miller started the bottom of the first with a single and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Blagg. Nichols got Miller to third and then scored on an RBI single up the middle by McDonnell for a 1-0 edge.
With two outs in the fourth, Banta singled to left center and reached third on Gozzard's single. Banta then scored on Zimmer's hit through the left side making it 2-0 with two innings left.
Miller, who did not allow a hit through four innings, give up two in the fifth, one in the sixth and seventh but held Mt. Aloysius scoreless for her fifth shutout this season.
