ST. DAVIDS, Pa. - On another beautiful afternoon, Eastern Softball earned their first doubleheader sweep of the season with a pair of wins against the Neumann University Knights on Wednesday. First-year pitcher
Danika Barthol pitched her third complete gem of the season in a 1-0 victory in game one. In game two, the Eagles scored three runs in the fifth inning and stifled a late Neumann rally to beat the Knights 4-2 in the nightcap.
After four shutout innings against Cabrini on Tuesday, Barthol (3-1) was brilliant in the circle once again for Eastern. The Emmaus native was perfect through the first 5.1 frames, retiring the first 16 batters she faced before giving up a pair of singles in the sixth. Additionally, Barthol struck out six batters for the second consecutive day while also inducing 15 flyouts. In 27 innings pitched, Barthol has given up just 10 hits, one earned run, and one extra base hit, boasting a remarkable ERA of 0.26. She currently leads the Eagles in wins, inning pitched, runs allowed (two), opposing batting average (.108), and strikeouts (23).
The Eagles' lone run came in the first inning. With two outs and
Mackenzie Laub on first, junior first basemen
Tori Hook singled to right center field, and fellow junior
Jania Long followed with a base hit to center field to score Laub and put the Eagles ahead 1-0.
Barthol did the rest, cruising through the rest of the contest. The Knights put two runners on with one out in the sixth, but Barthol induced two straight popouts to
Elena Iannuzzelli to end the scoring threat. Barthol followed with a perfect 1-2-3 seventh to secure Eastern's eighth win.
Alyssa Binczak finished 2-for-2 at the dish, while Hook, Long, and
Kelci Cost each finished with one hit.
Game two started out similarly to game one with the Eagles scoring one run in the first frame. After a Binczak single and a subsequent throwing error, which put her on third, Hook took a ball on the foot to put runners on the corners with one out. A few moments later, sophomore
Maeve Colligan grounded out to shortstop to score Binczak and put the Eagles ahead 1-0.
The combination of Long and sophomore reliever
Bryn Clifford (2-1) kept the Neumann offense in check over the first five innings, allowing just four total baserunners to keep the Eagles one-run lead in check.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Eagles tacked on a little insurance run. On the first pitch of her at-bat, sophomore third baseman
Sydney Ostolaza crushed a solo shot over the left field fence to push the Eagles' advantage to 2-0. It was the team-leading third home run and 10th RBI for the Landing, N.J. native. First-year outfielder
Sophia Vento made it 3-0 on an RBI groundout, and fellow first-year
Ainsley O'Donnell capped off the Eastern scoring with an RBI single through the left side of the infield to put the Eagles ahead by four.
Neumann did not go away quietly. The Knights led off the seventh with a triple from Alyssa Celi, before an Emily Ammon RBI single and a wild pitch scored a pair of runs to make it 4-2. However, Colligan shut down the comeback attempt, gathering in another wild pitch and tagging Ammon at home plate to end the contest and secure the doubleheader sweep.
Eastern (9-2) begins its conference schedule on Saturday with a doubleheader at Widener. First pitch in Chester is scheduled for 3:00 pm.
