Game 1 Box Score Game 2 Box Score
ANNVILLE, Pa. – The Lebanon Valley College softball team split a doubleheader with Lycoming College in the Flying Dutchmen's 2003 home opener Thursday afternoon at the LVC Softball Park.
Lycoming won 8-1 in game one on the strength of a seven-run seventh. In the nightcap the Valley scored twice in the bottom of the fifth and the game was called due to darkness at the end of the inning as LVC pulled out a 4-2 victory.
Sophomore Amanda Gery (4-1) fired a four-hit complete-game for Lycoming in the opener. Gery struck out nine, walked just one and allowed no earned runs. Sophomore Melissa Ulrich (Reinholds, Pa./Cocalico) (0-3) was tagged for seven runs in two and one-third innings and suffered the loss in relief.
Freshman Alisa Albers (Harrisburg, Pa./Central Dauphin) (1-0) came out of the bullpen in the second game to pick up her first career victory. Albers tossed two scoreless innings and yielded just one hit and one walk while striking out one. Senior Amanda Potteiger (Halifax, Pa./Halifax) drove in the game-winning runs with a two-out, two-run single to right in the fifth.
Freshman Kristen Reese (2-3) allowed four runs in four and one-third innings and was charged with the loss for Lycoming.
Senior Amanda Stevenson (Smyrna, Del./Smyrna) led LVC at the plate, going 2-for-4 over the doubleheader. She had a double and three runs scored in the second game.
In the first game, Lycoming pushed across a run in the top of the first, but LVC starter Jess Cooney (Rockledge, Pa./Abington) settled in and shut out the Warriors over the next three innings. Sophomore Kelly McManus (Langhorne, Pa./Neshaminy) drove in the Valley's only run of the game with an RBI single to center in the fourth.
Ulrich replaced Cooney at the start of the fifth inning and carried a 1-1 game into the seventh. However, the first six batters of the inning reached base before the Valley would record an out and the Warriors ended up scoring seven times on six hits and one error. Lycoming sent 11 batters to the plate in the frame.
In the nightcap, LVC took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Stevenson scored on the first of three illegal pitches by Reese. Lycoming crossed the plate twice on four hits in the third to take a 2-1 lead.
Stevenson doubled with one out in the third and scored two illegal pitches later to tie the game at 2-2. In the fifth Stevenson got things started once again, reaching on a walk. She advanced to third after a passed ball and wild pitch before junior Casey McCool (Spring Mills, Pa./Penns Valley) walked and continued on to second without a throw, putting runners on second and third and setting up Potteiger's game-winning hit two batters later.
Lebanon Valley opens its 2003 Commonwealth schedule on Saturday when the team visits Albright College at 1 p.m. in another doubleheader.
[Photo - Senior Amanda Potteiger, who drove in LVC's game-winning runs in the second game of the team's doubleheader against Lycoming on Thursday]
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