Beaver defeats defending champs; sweeps doubleheader

Bert DeSalvo, Staff Writer
Sunday, April 10, 2011 

The Penn State Beaver Lady Lions softball team defeated defending PSUAC champion Penn State Hazleton to claim a weekend sweep and improve to 4-0 in PSUAC play.

In game one, Beaver scored in the first inning as Lauren Pier (New Brighton High School/New Brighton, PA) scored on an Ashley Watkins (Seneca Valley High School/Cranberry Township, PA) fielder's choice. In the second inning, with two outs, Jessica Bartges (East Allegheny High School/North Versailles, PA) drove in Jamie Karpinski (Quigley Catholic High School/Beaver, PA) with a triple to left field, making the score 2-0. 

Although Hazleton scored their lone run in the third inning, Beaver responded in their half of the third as Myranda Raymond (Brashear High School/Pittsburgh, PA) hit a two-out RBI single. In the fourth inning, Pier drove in Kayla Chambers (South Side Beaver High School/Hookstown, PA) to make the score 4-1. Beaver added four more runs in the fifth to bring it to 8-1 and ended the game with the mercy rule in the sixth when Watkins hit an RBI double for a final score of 9-1.

In the win, Chambers earned her fourth victory of the season as she pitched six innings, allowed just one earned run, walked zero, and struck out six.                       

In the second game, Beaver scored in each of the first three innings. Starting pitcher Kory Freyermuth (Perry Traditional Academy/Pittsburgh, PA) helped herself by slapping a two-out single which scored Watkins to make it 1-0. In the second inning, Pier earned another two-out hit as she walloped a double to the left centerfield gap to increase Beaver's lead to 3-0. In the third inning, Beaver used the long ball to their advantage as they launched back-to-back home runs over the left field fence by Watkins and Freyermuth to give them a 5-0 advantage. 

Hazleton did score two unearned runs in the fifth to cut the Beaver lead to 5-2, but Beaver added another run in their half of the fifth as Lindsay Scialdone (Ellwood City High School/Ellwood City, PA) hit an RBI fielder's choice to score Ashley Watkins for a score of 6-2.

In the seventh inning, Chambers returned to the mound after a dominating performance in game one, striking out two Hazleton batters and sealing the win for Beaver. 

In the win, Freyermuth pitched six innings, allowed no earned runs on five hits, walked none, and struck out four. In addition, she went 2-2 at the plate with 2 RBIs and a walk. 

The Lady Lions (11-7, 4-0 PSUAC) remain undefeated in the PSUAC and will host Penn State Fayette at 2 p.m., Wednesday, April 13.