LORETTO, Pa. – Seniors Laura Caldwell (Bellefonte, PA /Bellefonte) (Bellefonte, Pa. / Bellefonte) and Kelly Slingwine (Gibsonia, PA /Pine Richland) (Gibsonia, Pa. / Pine Richland) broke two of the biggest school records to help lead the Saint Francis softball team to a doubleheader sweep of Youngstown State in non-conference action on Thursday afternoon at the Red Flash softball field.
Caldwell was strong in becoming the school's all-time wins leader in a 2-1, Game 1, victory. She gave up just one run on four hits, struck out nine and walked just one in 6.0 innings for her 44th career victory. She passed Patricia Galayda as the school's all-time wins leader to break the 11-year-old record.
Slingwine had a single in her second at-bat of the day to become SFU's all-time leader in hits. She passed former teammate Nicole Bender (Patton, PA/Cambria Heights) with her 187th career base hit. Slingwine then slugged three doubles and had three RBI in the nightcap to lead the Red Flash to a 9-1, six-inning, win over the Penguins.
Saint Francis improved to 20-24 overall on the season. The Red Flash, who are 5-7 in the Northeast Conference, will return to action with four critical games this weekend. They will play host to Wagner at 1 p.m. on Saturday, and then Long Island will visit on Senior Day, 12 p.m. Sunday. SFU is 2.0 games out of a fourth-place playoff spot in the NEC, and needs to leapfrog three teams to get into the tournament.
In Game 1, Slingwine broke a scoreless tie with her record-breaking single and some hustle. She belted her hit to left field, and stole second base on the next pitch. She then moved to third on a sacrifice bunt, and came around to score when senior Nicole Waligora (Johnstown, PA /Westmont Hilltop) (Johnstown, Pa. / Westmont Hilltop) reached on a fielding error.
Freshman Paige Smith (Saugus, Calif. / Valencia) roped a leadoff double in the fifth inning, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt, and then scored on an RBI single by junior Jamie Dixon (Revloc, PA /Central Cambria ) (Revloc, Pa. / Central Cambria) to make it 2-0.
Caldwell cruised through the first five innings, and had eight of her nine strikeouts in the first four innings. Youngstown State finally got on the board with a Jordan Ingalls home run in the top of the sixth inning.
Freshman Megan Layne (Vallejo, Calif. / Rodriguez) came in to work the seventh inning for her first career save in a Red Flash uniform.
SFU had seven hits in the game, all by different players.
Slingwine double in three straight at-bats, but it was her three-run double down the left field line that made it 4-0. Smith added an RBI single, and senior Kara Stroup (Valencia, PA /Mars) (Valencia, Pa. / Mars) drilled a two-run homer in the seven-run fourth inning.
Youngstown State scored one run in the sixth inning, but Smith added a two-run single in the bottom half of the inning to end the game on the eight-run mercy rule.
Junior Jerrica Smith (Breezewood, PA /Everett) (Breezewood, Pa. / Everett) picked up the win with her strongest effort of the season. She gave up just one run on five hits, struck out three and walked just one in 6.0 innings of work.
Smith was 2-for-4 with three RBI as the top four batters in the batting order collected all seven base hits for the Flash.
