Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score

SELINSGROVE, Pa. – The Susquehanna softball team rebounded from a game-one loss to Juniata to win the nightcap and earn a split with the Eagles on Saturday afternoon, which also marked Senior Day for the program.

SU (22-6, 4-2) lost the opener 3-2 before winning game two by a decisive 8-0 score over the Eagles (8-12, 4-4).

In the game-two victory, senior pitcher Sarah Hoffman (Laceyville, Pa./Wyalusing Valley) tossed a three-hit shutout and struck out six batters en route to her eighth win of the spring.

Leadoff hitter Brianna Murphy (Hazlet, N.J./Mater Dei Prep) went 3-for-3 with one RBI and one run scored while Amanda Neveroski (Toms River, N.J./Toms River North) finished 2-for-3, including a home run, with two RBI.  

After a scoreless first inning, the Crusaders put together a six-run second inning to surge ahead. The team collected four hits in the inning, one of which was an Alyssa Cantalini (Kitchener, Ontario/St. David Catholic Secondary) two-run single to center that made it a 4-0 game. Neveroski followed with a two-run homer the very next at-bat to put SU up 6-0.

That remained the score until the bottom of the fifth when Stephanie Chlebove (Northampton, Pa./Northampton Area) drove in the game's seventh run. Murphy then came through with the game-winning hit, a RBI bunt single, to make it 8-0 and end the game in five innings.

Game one was more of an offensive struggle for the Crusaders. SU finished with six hits, half of which came from Murphy as she also scored twice and drove in one of Susquehanna's two runs.

Starter Morgan Lewis (Newtown, Pa./Council Rock North) pitched the first five innings and gave up three runs, two earned, on seven hits. Ashley Cole (Carle Place, N.Y./Carle Place) pitched the final two innings, did not give up a hit and walked just one batter.

Scoreless through two, it was actually the Crusaders who struck first with a run in the bottom of the third on Murphy's leadoff homer to centerfield.

It stood 1-0 in favor of SU until the Eagles put together a three-run fifth inning on four hits and one Crusader error. Lewis was able to leave two runners stranded, though, to keep it a 3-1 ballgame.

With their final chances to tie or win the game in the bottom of the seventh, the Crusaders' Cantalini's sac fly cut Juniata's lead to just one, 3-2, but Eagles pitcher Kelsea Decker retired Neveroski to thwart the comeback.

Susquehanna returns to action on April 17 with a doubleheader at Elizabethtown with game one set to start at 3 p.m.