PHILADELPHIA – Coming into the day winners of six in a row, USciences Softball opened the scoring in both games of a doubleheader with second-place Caldwell on Sunday afternoon, only to have the Cougars come back for 11-8 and 6-3 victories.
The Devils led 4-0 through three innings of game one and 2-0 through two frames of the nightcap.
Abbigail Markee and Nina Cencetti both had multiple hits in each game, with Markee finishing 5-for-9 with two runs and Cencetti going 4-for-7 with four RBI.
Game One
University of the Sciences went ahead 4-0, and the Devils answered a four-run Caldwell fourth with two runs of their own in the bottom-half, but the Cougars broke out for seven in the fifth.
USciences brought the tying run to the place twice in the bottom of the sixth following back-to-back singles by Danielle Jones and Cencetti, but the Devils could get no closer than three after a two-run fifth of their own.
Jones and Cencetti both finished 2-for-4, with Cencetti's two-RBI double doubling USciences' advantage to 4-0 in the third.
Markee led the offense with a 3-for-5 performance for her fifth three-hit game this year. She scored the Devils' first two runs on a Gabriella Polera single in the first, and a Taylor Hamm groundout in the third.
Gabrielle Simms also scored twice while Ashley Steiner drove in two runs, including an RBI groundout that brought in Simms to make the score 5-4 in the fourth.
That run was the 84th of Simms' career, now third in program history. Her one-out triple in the frame moved her into a tie for third in program history with 10 as it was her fourth this year, now tied for second in the program's Division II-era single-season history.
Steiner also cut the deficit to 11-7 with an RBI single in the fifth, with Simms coming in on a wild pitch during the next at-bat, but the Devils could never recover from the seven-run fifth that saw 12 Cougars come to the plate.
Game Two
Cencetti once again had an early two-RBI base-hit, as this time it was a second inning single that put University of the Sciences ahead.
The Devils would not score again until its final at bat though, bringing the tying run to the plate down 6-2 with one out after a Markee single sandwiched walks by Simms and Steiner.
A fielder's choice cut the deficit to 6-3, once again bringing the tying run to the plate. Polera drove a ball deep to center field, only to have the center-fielder make a lunging catch at the warning track.
Markee's seventh-inning single was her second hit, while Cencetti went 2-for-3.
Starter Olivia Quercia threw scoreless first and second innings, stranding multiple runners in both, before Caldwell a two-out walk led to Caldwell finally getting on the board in the third.
A lead-off triple then led to the Cougars taking the lead for good in the fourth, before a three-run sixth that featured two unearned runs proved to be needed insurance.
Up Next
University of the Sciences plays the first of two doubleheaders this week on Tuesday when it travels to city-rival Jefferson for a 2:30 p.m. first pitch.
