Juniata Box Score
Catholic Box Score

SELINSGROVE, Pa. – The No. 1 seed Susquehanna softball team split a pair of games on the opening day of the Landmark Conference Tournament. The Crusaders won their opener 8-0 against No. 4 seed Juniata before falling to Catholic, the No. 3 seed, 3-0 in the nightcap.

SU will now face the winner of Saturday's first game between Juniata and Moravian at 11 a.m. The Eagles and Greyhounds will play at 9 a.m.

With the game one victory, Susquehanna (34-7) matched its program record in wins with 34, tying its total from the 2010 season in which the team earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Morgan Lewis (Newtown, Pa./Council Rock North) tossed a complete game, two-hit shutout against the Eagles (10-17) to pick up her 11^th victory of the season. Alyssa Cantalini (Kitchener, Ontario/St. David Catholic Secondary) went 2-for-3 with a game-high three RBI while Brianna Murphy (Hazlet, N.J./Mater Dei Prep) drove in two runs from her leadoff spot.

Cantalini got the scoring started with a two-out, solo home run in the first inning. The Crusaders then put together a five-run second inning. Stephanie Chlebove (Northampton, Pa./Northampton Area) drove home the first run of the inning with a single through the right side. With the bases loaded, Larissa Luu (Montandon, Pa./Milton) was hit by a pitch that made it 3-0 and Kathryn Gilbert (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley) made it a 4-0 game with a sac fly.

Cantalini capped off the inning's scoring by doubling to center field to plate two more runs and make it a 6-0 Susquehanna lead.

It remained a 6-0 ballgame heading into the bottom of the sixth when Murphy came to bat with runners on first and second and one out and drove a two-run single to right center field to end the game.

Unfortunately game two was a shutout that did not go in favor of the Crusaders as Catholic won 3-0, the Cardinals' (20-18) second win of the day. Brittany Devlin (Furlong, Pa./Central Bucks East) led SU with two hits and starter Sarah Hoffman (Laceyville, Pa./Wyalusing Valley) went the distance and gave up three runs, two earned, on eight hits and had six strikeouts.

The Cardinals got on the board quickly in the first on a Christy Sanchez RBI single through the left side. Catholic remained ahead 1-0 until the top of the third when the Cardinals added a second run on a SU throwing error.

Susquehanna stranded a runner on third in the bottom of the third and with the score still 2-0 after six, Catholic was able to add an insurance run in its half of the seventh inning thanks to two hits, the second of which was a Nina Curto RBI double to center field.

With their last chances to tie or win the game, the Crusaders saw Luu come through with a two-out single to right which was followed by a walk by Gilbert. A wild pitch advanced both runners but Murphy lined out to right field to end the game.

In the day's second game, Moravian fell to Catholic by a final score of 7-1.