WASHINGTON, Pa. -- The Washington & Jefferson College softball split a doubleheader with Waynesburg at Brook Park on Saturday afternoon.
The Presidents move to 8-5-1 and Waynesburg now sits at 8-8.
Both teams collected five inning mercy rule victories on the afternoon. The visitors took game one 14-0 while W&J collected a 14-6 game two win.
Game 1 – Waynesburg 14, W&J 0 (5 innings)
The visiting Yellow Jackets opened the first game of the doubleheader with eight runs off seven hits in the top of the first inning and cruised to a mercy-rule victory.
Waynesburg added a solo home run in the second inning and plated five more runs in the fifth.
The W&J bats mustered five hits in game one. Freshman
Breanna Thomas (Baden, Pa./Ambridge) had two hits in the designated player spot.
Game 2 – W&J 14, Waynesburg 6 (5 innings)
The Presidents' bats came alive in game two as W&J banged out 13 hits to plate 14 runs.
The teams combined for 10 errors and a combined 12 unearned runs in game two.
Waynesburg started game two much like the first with the Jackets' first three runners reaching base safely and jumping out to a 2-0 lead. Freshman pitcher
Sydney Petrowski (Lemont Furnace, Pa./Connellsville) settled in and retired the next three batters, allowing just one more run to limit the Waynesburg lead to 3-0.
In the bottom of the first W&J responded with four runs of its own. A pair of Waynesburg errors turned into the Presidents' first two runs.
Thomas smacked an RBI triple to plate
Olivia Dewick (Pittsburgh, Pa./Keystone Oaks) and tie the game at three. Thomas came around and scored as
Brooke McCleester (Johnstown, Pa./Conemaugh Valley) doubled her home to give W&J a 4-3 lead after one.
Waynesburg tied the game at four with a solo home run in the top of the second.
Sarah Labbe (Belgrade, Maine/Messalonksee) singled home
Mollie Charlton (North Apollo, Pa./Apollo Ridge) to give W&J a 5-4 advantage in the bottom of the second. The Presidents would go on to score four more runs in the inning with two runs scorring on an RBI single by Dewick and two more on a single and error off the bat of McCleester.
Waynesburg plated a pair of runs in the top of a third to make it 9-6 W&J.
Alisha Kulka (Hanover, Pa./South Western) entered the game in relief and kept Waynesburg off the board in the fourth and fifth innings.
The Presidents added a run in the fourth with Charlton diving in McCleester.
In the bottom of the fifth, a pair of Waynesburg errors set the table for an RBI single by Thomas.
Freshman
Abby Fullem (Everson, Pa./Southmoreland) ended the game with a doubles loaded, three-run double as the Presidents went ahead 14-6 to trigger the mercy rule.
Petrowski earned her first collegiate victory after going 3.0 innings and allowing three earned runs. Kulka collected the save with a pair of scoreless innings to close out the victory.
McCleester went 4-for-4 at the plate, doubled, scored twice and drove in two runs. Dewick had two hits, two RBI and scored three times. Thomas had two hits, a triple, scored twice and drove in a pair.
Labbe scored three times.
Kasey Scears (Washington, Pa./Chartiers-Houston) had two hits and scored twice.
The Presidents wrap up the non-conference portion of their schedule Monday at home against Geneva.
