Lady Lions drop doubleheader to Carlow
By Bert DeSalvo, Staff Writer
March 27, 2011
Monaca, PA - The Penn State Beaver Lady Lions lost two close non-conference home games to the Carlow University Lady Celtics (Pittsburgh, PA) on Sunday afternoon.
In the first game, Beaver attacked Carlow pitching and threatened in each of the first two innings. However, Beaver did not capitalize, stranding four runners in the first two frames.
Carlow struck first as they cracked a 3-run homer to left field off of starting pitcher and senior captain Kayla Chambers (South Side Beaver High School/Hookstown, PA). However, in the third inning, Beaver answered as Ashley Watkins (Seneca Valley High School/Cranberry Township, PA) hit a triple to right field, and freshman Lauren Pier (New Brighton High School/New Brighton, PA) drove her in with a clutch two-out single, making the score 3-1.
Carlow manufactured a run in the fourth inning as they scored on a walk, pass ball, and two fielder's choices, upping their lead to 4-1 where the score remained until the sixth inning when Watkins looked to smack her fourth roundtripper of the year. But the drive to left field hit the bottom of the fence, leaving Watkins with a leadoff double. Pier once again scored Watkins on a one-out fielder's choice, cutting the Carlow lead to 4-2.
Beaver's defense held Carlow in the sixth inning, catching a Carlow runner in a rundown for the final out of the inning, but the Lady Lions couldn't muster any offense, and Carlow took the game, 4-2.
In the second game, Beaver was down early to Carlow, 4-1, after two innings. In the third inning, with a runner on base, starting pitcher Korey Freyermuth (Perry Traditional Academy/Pittsburgh, PA) launched a deep drive to left field that appeared to leave the yard, but Carlow's Rachel Blonski leaped and stole a surefire homer to squelch the Beaver rally.
In the fourth inning, Carlow added two more runs while Beaver added a solo homerun from Myranda Raymond (Brashear High School/Pittsburgh, PA) to bring the score to 6-2 in Carlow's favor. In the fifth inning, Beaver led the inning off with three consecutive singles and was capped by a game-tying 2-run double by Chambers.
However, Carlow hit their second 3-run homer of the day in the seventh inning and added another run on shaky Lady Lions fielding to make the final 10-6.
With the losses, Beaver dropped to 5-7 in the season and 0-0 in the PSUAC. Beaver will face Geneva College (Beaver Falls, PA) on Wednesday, March 30 in the Fred "Stats" Holmes Softball Classic in memory of the well-known area high school and college statistician who passed away in March.