By: Frank Maira, Assistant Director of Athletics/Sports Information Director
MONT ALTO, Pa. – The Penn State Mont Alto softball team hosted PSU Greater Allegheny for a PSUAC doubleheader on Sunday as the visitors completed the season series sweep winning by scores of 6-1 and 10-9. Greater Allegheny took advantage of a couple of errors in game one and came back in extra innings as Mont Alto fell to 4-4 overall and 2-4 in the PSUAC.
In game one, Greater Allegheny broke the game open in the second inning adding four runs to its 1-0 lead. The visitors capitalized on four Mont Alto errors within that second stanza as Ivy Mervis brought in the final run of the inning on a RBI single, which made it 5-0.
Mont Alto threatened in the bottom of the fourth inning, Sydney Binner (Port St. Lucie, Fla. / St. Lucie West Centennial) started things out with a one-out single. Two batters later, Binner was thrown out at home plate, but during the same sequence Helayna Stanko (Biglerville, Pa. / Biglerville) used heads up base running to cross home plate making it 5-1. PSUGA added an insurance run in the top of the seventh for the 6-1 win.
Game two was much more competitive with each team showing a taste for late heroics. Trailing 9-6 entering the final inning, shortstop Brooklyn Wagner (Newville, Pa. / Biglerville) hit her first colligate home run to spark the rally. Sydney Binner (Port St. Lucie, Fla. / St. Lucie West Centennial) singled up the middle and scored on a passed ball to bring the score to 9-8. Dara Murray (Greencastle, Pa. / Greencastle Antrim) came through with a clutch at-bat producing a fielder's choice that scored Stanko from third base.
PSUGA scored in the top of the eight with Haley Maskin capitalizing on the international tiebreaker rule where she started on second base, advanced on a ground out, and scored the eventual game-winning run on a Alyssa Guzzie ground out.
Penn State Mont Alto will look to rebound on Tuesday, April 10 when it hosts PSU Beaver in a pivotal PSUAC West doubleheader. Game times are set for 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.
