Game 1 Box Score   Game 2 Box Score 

ANNVILLE, Pa. – The Lebanon Valley College softball team concluded the regular season portion of its schedule with a doubleheader split with King's on Tuesday afternoon at the LVC Softball Park.

Lebanon Valley won 3-2 on its last at-bat in the opener, but lost 7-6 in eight innings in the nightcap despite erasing a five-run deficit in the bottom of the sixth.

Sophomore Jenn Roberts got the win in the opener to push her record to 15-1, while classmate Kelly O'Toole took the loss in Game Two while falling to 8-5.

For the first time in school history, Lebanon Valley (26-10) went an entire season without getting swept in a doubleheader.

King's, the five-time defending Freedom Conference champion, saw its record move to 28-10.

LVC ripped 22 hits on the afternoon, including 15 in the nightcap. Sophomore leftfielder Amy Batz led the Valley at the plate, going 5-for-8 for the doubleheader, including a 4-for-5 performance in Game Two. Senior centerfielder Melissa Ulrich went 4-for-8 and was 3-for-5 in the nightcap.

In the opener, Lebanon Valley took a 1-0 lead against King's starter Sarah Genewski in the bottom of the third when freshman catcher Jessica Salisbury launched her first collegiate home run, a towering shot over the left-centerfield fence.

Roberts blanked the Monarchs over the first five innings before King's took the lead with a two-run, three-hit third.

Lebanon Valley was down to its last strike in the bottom of the seventh before scoring the winning runs. With one out, senior first baseman Chris Jessen singled and Salisbury doubled, putting runners on second and third. After a groundout, freshman designated player Lauren Sanford worked a 2-2 count before stroking a grounder up the middle. King's shortstop ran the ball down, but threw it away on a bang-bang play at first, allowing pinch-runner Jessica Abbott to score from second with the winning run.

Roberts scattered six hits, walked none and struck out seven as she pulled to within five of the LVC single-season K's record (134) set by Amy Zellers '00 in 2000. Genewski (9-5) allowed seven hits, walked one and fanned three.

Salisbury and Jessen each went 2-for-3 in the opener.

Lebanon Valley fell behind 5-0 after five and a half innings of play in the nightcap. A solo home run by Kristin Brady made it 5-0, and it was the first long ball allowed by LVC over the previous 242 innings this season. The Dutchmen rallied with a five-run, eight-hit sixth, when it sent 11 batters to the plate. Batz made it 5-5 with an RBI-single, her second hit of the inning.

King's scored twice on three hits in the eighth. Lebanon Valley cut it to 7-6 with a run in the bottom of the inning, and junior third baseman Jenn Parks drew a two-out walk to load the bases. But Genewski, who came on in relief in the sixth, induced a flyout to end the game.

O'Toole went the distance for the Valley in the nightcap, and yielded 12 hits and no walks while striking out two. Genewski threw the final three innings and scattered four hits to pick up the win.

Junior rightfielder Lisa DiCristofaro finished 3-for-4 in Game Two for LVC.

Lebanon Valley will make its second straight appearance in the Commonwealth Conference championship tournament on Friday and Saturday at Susquehanna. LVC, the second seed, will face third-seeded Messiah at 1 p.m.

[Photo - Sophomore Amy Batz, who went 5-for-8 in Lebanon Valley's doubleheader split with King's on Tuesday]

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