GREENVILLE, Pa. – A go-ahead run on a wild pitch in game one followed by a six-run eighth inning propelled the Washington & Jefferson softball team to 5-3 and 13-7 extra-inning wins at Thiel in a Presidents' Athletic Conference doubleheader on Friday afternoon, April 20.
 
Both games needed eight innings to complete, marking the first extra-inning games for the Presidents in over a year. The pair of wins improves W&J to 9-15 overall and 5-7 in the PAC.
 
With game one tied, 3-3, and one out in the eighth inning, Rachel Johnson (Orchard Park, N.Y./Orchard Park) reached safely on a fielding error. After stealing second, Johnson moved up to third base on an infield single by Dana Parker (Coraopolis, Pa./Montour). Parker proceeded to steal second to put runners on second and third, still with one out, before both runners moved up yet again on a wild pitch, giving the Presidents the final lead.
 
Parker crossed home plate for the fifth W&J run of the game on another wild pitch later in the eighth.
 
The Presidents loaded the bases to start the game with all batters reaching via base on balls. With two outs in the inning, Taylor Andres (Bethel Park, Pa./Bethel Park) singled to center field to drive in Johnson and Parker.
 
After the Tomcats got one run back in the bottom of the first on two hits, three of the first four W&J hitters singled to start the top of the second to load the bases with one out. Danielle Kochka (Monroeville, Pa./Gateway) then singled to shortstop and allowed Johnson to score from third to extend the Presidents' lead to 3-1.
 
The final two Thiel runs scored in the bottom of the third on the strength of three hits.
 
Andres (7-6) earned the win on the mound in game one, tying her career high of 8.0 inning pitched and allowing three earned runs on seven hits with three walks and two strikeouts. The game marked her ninth complete game of the season and the 26th in her career.
 
Despite going hitless for just the second time all season, Johnson walked twice and scored a career-high tying three times. Brooke McCleester (Johnstown, Pa./Conemaugh Valley) and Brooke Shuck (Huntingdon, Pa./Huntingdon) both recorded two hits in the contest to lead a group of seven Presidents with at least one base knock.
 
The Presidents' offense drew eight walks in the first game, the most in a single game since getting nine free passes in an 11-2 win at Chatham on April 9, 2014.
 
With a 7-5 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh inning of game two, Thiel scratched two runs across the plate to tie things up and send the game into extra innings again. Jamie Smith (Bethel Park, Pa./Bethel Park) got the Presidents back in the lead with an RBI single down the left-field line after Addy Helffrich (Sewickley, Pa./Avonworth) led off with a double to left. Meghan Staab (Pittsburgh, Pa./Keystone Oaks) later reached on a fielder's choice, driving in Smith on the play, followed by two-RBI doubles from both Johnson and McCleester to give W&J the final lead of 13-7.
 
A scoreless tie was broken by Thiel in the bottom of the third as the Tomcats struck for five runs on three hits and two W&J errors.
 
Each of the first three W&J hitters reached to lead off the top of the fourth inning before Lexie Creyer (Blandon, Pa./Fleetwood) singled through the left side to bring Helffrich across home plate. With the bases still loaded and two outs, Johnson laced a bases-clearing triple to right-center field to cut the deficit to 5-4 before the end of the inning.
 
Helffrich doubled to left to start the fifth and moved up to third on a single to left by Smith. Shuck followed by reaching on a fielder's choice, driving Helffrich in from third to erase the five-run deficit, before Staab singled home Smith to give the Presidents their first lead of the game.
 
The seventh W&J run was scored in the top of the seventh, courtesy of a bases loaded RBI bunt single from Parker, before the Tomcats tied the game at 7-7 in the bottom half of the inning.
 
Smith went a career-best 4-for-5 in game two with an RBI and three runs scored plus a stolen base. Johnson and Helffrich both went 3-for-5 with Johnson driving in five runs from the lead-off spot, hitting for two doubles and a triple, while Helffrich doubled twice and scored three times. Creyer, Staab, McCleester and Parker each had multi-hit efforts as well in the second game as the team finished with 20 hits, the most in a single game since April 16, 2016, against Chatham (21).
 
Kristen Fuertes (West Chester, Pa./West Chester) pitched 4.0 innings and faced the first two hitters in the fifth inning before Andres took over and completed the game. Andres picked up her second win of the day after allowing two runs over the final four innings to improve to 8-6 this season.
 
The Presidents will be back on the diamond tomorrow, April 21, for a PAC doubleheader on the road against Saint Vincent beginning at 2:00 p.m.