STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – The Saint Francis softball team opened NEC play with a split of its doubleheader against Sacred Heart on Sunday. The teams played at Penn State due to weather concerns in Loretto. The Flash dominated game one in a 7-1 victory before losing an extra-inning thriller, 7-6, in 10 innings.
The Flash (18-8) stormed out to the early lead in game one. After
Taylor Parsons (Bellefonte, Pa./Bald Eagle) led off the first inning with a walk,
Madison Cabell (Ivor, Va./Southampton) doubled her home with a shot to the gap in right center to make it 1-0.
After Sacred Heart tied the score in the third, the Flash answered the bottom half of the frame. Parsons led off the inning with a triple to right, and
Kindra Witthus (Hudson, Wis./Hudson) brought her home with a single up the middle to make it 2-1. After an error and a fielder's choice loaded the bases,
Nicole Paiotti (Oakland, N.J./Indian Hills) was hit by a pitch to force in the Flash's third run.
Jordan Seneca (New Kensington, Pa./Plum) followed with a run-scoring single to make it 4-1 as
Alexis Bower (Cogan Station, Pa./Williamsport Area) crossed the plate.
Cabell added her second double of the game in the bottom of the sixth inning, clearing the bases and scoring Bower, Parsons and
Maggie Creciun (Norristown, Pa./Norristown) to make it 7-1. Parsons and Creciun also had two hits in the first game.
After
Ethel Santai (Pine Grove, Pa./Pine Grove Area) pitched three effective innings before
Blaire Lauthers (Doylesburg, Pa./Fannett-Metal) finished with four innings of one-hit ball. She earned the victory in the game-one win.
Saint Francis scored two runs in the bottom of the first of game two. Parsons walked and later scored on a triple by
Kindra Witthus (Hudson, Wis./Hudson). She scored on a wild pitch just two batters later to make it 2-0. Sacred Heart fought back with four runs in its next four at-bats to make the score 4-2 Pioneers heading into the bottom of the fifth.
Thanks to four hits and three Sacred Heart errors, the Flash piled four runs onto the board to retake the lead. Bower led off with a single and a two-base error. She scored on Cabell's grounder to second that also went for an error. After two outs,
Lindsey Reid (Bear, Del./Caravel Academy) brought home Seneca and pinch runner
Kelsie Marconi (Lowber, Pa./Yough) to give the Flash a 5-4 advantage. Parsons singled in the next at-bat to drive home Creciun to make it 6-4.
The Pioneers made it 6-5 in the top of the sixth and looked to tie the score on a sacrifice fly to center. But Parsons came up firing and threw a bullet to Witthus at the plate. Her tag was on time to end the inning with the Flash still ahead by a run.
The Pioneers fought back, though, with a solo home run with one out in the seventh inning to tie the score, 6-6. It stayed that way all the way through until the top of the 10th inning when an RBI double with one out gave the Pioneers a 7-6 lead that it wouldn't relinquish.
Parsons and Creciun each had two hits again in the second game, and Bower also had a pair of hits.
The Flash heads back out of conference when it travels to Akron on Tuesday for a doubleheader starting at 3 p.m.
