Gettysburg has hope after sweep

The Gettysburg College softball team did exactly what it needed to do to stay in the hunt for a postseason berth by beating McDaniel College in a pair of games at Bobby Jones Field on Monday.

Gettysburg (19-15, 9-7 CC) beat McDaniel (10-22, 4-12) 4-3 and 6-3 to keep its hopes of capturing the Centennial Conference’s final playoff spot alive. The Bullets trail Muhlenberg (18-15, 9-5) and Franklin & Marshall (22-11-1, 8-6), with those two schools closing out their seasons on today against Ursinus (17-14, 10-4) and Dickinson (14-15, 10-4), respectively. Gettysburg needs both the Mules and Diplomats to be swept to gain the final spot.

The hosts had to work for their wins Monday as McDaniel took advantage of some early miscues to bring across three runs in the first game. The Green Terror scored the first run in the second after an opening error in the outfield, and the visitors tacked on two more in the following inning thanks to an error in the infield.

Gettysburg countered with an unearned run in the fourth to cut the deficit to 3-1. In the following inning, the Bullets picked up two more runs as freshman Abby Ferguson and senior Caitlin Bay posted back-to-back run-scoring singles, the former hitting the center-field wall on the fly. After a fly out, senior Megan Lott put Gettysburg ahead 4-3 with an RBI single to left.

Junior Lanie Parr retired the side in the seventh to get the victory. She improved to 10-7 on the year after allowing three unearned runs on six hits and one walk with four strikeouts.

Ferguson and Bay each finished 2-for-3 with an RBI in the opener.

Gettysburg jumped out of the gates early in game two thanks to junior Adrienne Rahs. Down 1-0 and with one out on the board in the first inning, junior Catrina DelGais connected on a double and Rahs followed with a blast to left that clanged off the foul pole for her second home run of the season. The blast was also the 20th of the year by the team, more than double the previous school record.

Bay provided a sacrifice fly to give Gettysburg a 3-1 edge after one inning. In the very next at bat for the Bullets, the team struck for three more runs, all with two outs. Rahs notched the first tally with her school-record tying 14th double of the spring and freshman Maggie Maguire followed with a two-run double to spot the hosts a 6-1 advantage.

McDaniel posted a pair of runs in the fifth and was primed for more with runners on first and second with one out. Sophomore Taylor Snyder took care of the second out with a grounder to the mound, and Rahs closed the frame by picking off the runner at third base.

Snyder improved to 9-8 by holding McDaniel to one earned run on seven hits. Gettysburg’s top-five hitters provided the offense, going a combined 11-for-18 with six runs. DelGais managed a trio of hits, while sophomore Joy Hallfors, Rahs, Maguire, and Ferguson each posted two hits.
source : Gettysburg Times