Game 1 Box Score Game 2 Box Score
ANNVILLE, Pa. – The Lebanon Valley College softball team split a Commonwealth Conference doubleheader with Elizabethtown College on Saturday afternoon at the LVC Softball Park.
The Blue Jays won the opener 4-3 but LVC rallied for an 8-5 victory in the nightcap.
Elizabethtown (9-15, 2-6 CC) scored all of its runs off a pair of home runs in the first game. The Blue Jays built a 4-0 lead after four and a half innings, then held off a late Flying Dutchman comeback. In the second game, Lebanon Valley (10-14, 6-4 CC) used a four-run third to erase a 4-1 deficit and take the lead for good.
In the opener, the Blue Jays did the bulk of their damage in the second inning, when junior Diana Aria smacked a three-run homer to left-center off LVC starter Kelly O'Toole (Monroe, N.Y./Monroe-Woodbury). Etown made it 4-0 when junior Megan Balmer led off the fifth with a homer to left.
LVC rallied with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth when junior Melissa Ulrich (Reinholds, Pa./Cocalico) delivered her first home run of the season, a two-run blast to left. The Dutchmen made it a one-run game in the sixth after a leadoff double by sophomore Mandi Nace (Liverpool, Pa./Greenwood) and an RBI-single by junior Gina Battistelli (Lebanon, Pa./Cedar Crest). Lebanon Valley had the tying run on first in the seventh after freshman Jenn Parks (Monroeville, N.J./Woodstown) led off with a single, but Etown starter Michelle Morris retired the final three batters she faced to hold on for the win.
Morris (6-4) scattered eight hits in a complete-game victory. She walked five and struck out five. O'Toole (4-1) suffered her first loss of the season, allowing all four (three earned) Blue Jays runs while walking none and striking out one in 4 1/3 innings.
Sophomore Alisa Albers (Harrisburg, Pa./Central Dauphin) threw 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief for the Valley.
Freshman Kelli Thon was 3-for-4 in the opener for Etown. Parks and Battistelli collected a pair of hits for the Dutchmen.
In Game Two, the Blue Jays took advantage of three Lebanon Valley errors over the first two innings, building a 3-0 lead on just one hit off LVC starter Jenn Roberts (East Petersburg, Pa./Hempfield). An RBI-double by sophomore Lisa DiCristofaro (Wilmington, Del./Concord) in the bottom of the second cut it to 3-1, but Etown answered with a run of its own in the third to make it a 4-1 game.
Lebanon Valley's bats would heat up, however, and LVC ended up ripping 12 hits for the game, just one off the team's season-high. The Dutchmen broke through in the third, scoring four times on three hits and two errors while sending eight batters to the plate. Freshman Amy Batz (Lebanon, Pa./Cedar Crest) drilled an RBI-single and Ulrich was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded before junior Chris Jessen (Newfield, N.J./Woodstown) stroked a two-run single to put LVC ahead 5-4.
The Dutchmen tacked on three more runs over the fifth and sixth. In the fifth inning, DiCristofaro drilled an RBI single. Then in the sixth, Roberts produced a run-scoring single before Ulrich followed with an RBI-double off the warning track in left-center.
Roberts (4-6) had an outstanding all-around game for LVC. She hurled the complete game, her seventh of the season, while allowing only two earned runs. She walked one and struck out five. At the plate, Roberts was 2-for-2 with four runs.
Batz finished 3-for-4 at the dish for the Valley while freshman Audrey Benner (Leola, Pa./Conestoga Valley) and DiCristofaro logged two hits apiece. DiCristofaro and Ulrich had two RBIs apiece.
Senior Emily Morris was 3-for-4 with a pair of RBIs for Etown.
Freshman Lauren Swiecicki was charged with the loss. Swiecicki (1-7) threw the complete game while walking three and striking out none.
Lebanon Valley returns to action when it visits Moravian College, currently ranked No. 1 in Division III, on Tuesday at 3 p.m.
[Photo - Junior Melissa Ulrich, who had four RBIs in Lebanon Valley's doubleheader split with Elizabethtown on Saturday]
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