PHILADELPHIA – An eight-run sixth allowed the USciences softball team to erase a four-run deficit in a 13-8 game one victory, before Felician returned the favor in a 6-5 game two for a doubleheader split on Thursday afternoon.
The Devils' nine Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) wins this year are now tied for their most since they had 10 in 2014.
Abbigail Markee had a perfect 4-for-4 performance in the nightcap, her second career four-hit game, completing a day in which she went 7-for-9 with two triples, six runs, three stolen bases and three RBI. The seven hits moved her all the way from outside of the top 10 to tied for fourth in the program's Division II-era single-season record book with 48.
Gabrielle Simms also had multiple hits in both games, finishing 4-for-7 with two doubles, four RBI and a run. Her two doubles gave her 29 for her career, now tied for the program record.
Felician was able to get within three, 11-8, with an unearned run in response to USciences' eight-run sixth, but Olivia Quercia stranded the bases loaded before working a scoreless seventh to earn her first career collegiate win.
The freshman also stranded the bases loaded after coming on with two outs in the fifth, as she did not allow an earned run in her 2.1 innings.
Game One
Trailing 7-3, USciences' eight-run sixth saw 11 Devils come to the plate, with Gabriella Polera beginning the inning with a double and later coming through with the eventual game-winning two-RBI single.
Simms also had two hits in the frame as she followed Polera with a single, and Nina Cencetti's one-out single made the score 7-4.
A Miranda Rodriguez walk then loaded the bases, and Sabrina Kaffl followed with another to cut the deficit in half.
An error allowed two runs to come in to tie the score and after the second out was recorded, Polera and Simms came through with back-to-back two-RBI base hits, the latter of which was a double.
Markee led the offense with a 3-for-5 performance, her sixth three-hit game of the year, that featured a triple, three runs and three RBI. She singled home USciences' first run in a three-run third, later coming in on Taylor Hamm's two-RBI double that gave the Devils their first lead at 3-2.
That lead lasted until two unearned runs in the bottom of the fourth, and the Golden Falcons added three in the fifth for their four-run advantage.
Polera also reached base three times as she walked in addition to her two sixth-inning hits, while Kaffl drew three bases on balls.
Kaffl, Cencetti and Rodriguez all scored twice.
Game Two
USciences led 4-0 after scoring two runs in both the first and third. Both of those frames began with a Markee leadoff single and ended with an RBI base-hit by Simms. Polera was involved in both innings too, first opening the scoring with an RBI groundout. Her third-inning single was then sandwiched by RBI doubles by both Hamm and Simms.
Felician cut the deficit in half with a two-run third of its own, before tying the score at 5-5 in the fourth. This came after a Markee one-out triple in the top-half led to a 5-2 score-line when she came in on an Ashley Steiner sacrifice fly.
Kyla Valver came on for her first collegiate pitching appearance and proceeded to strand a runner on second with zero outs in the fourth.
She also threw scoreless fifth and sixth innings, but the Devils stranded Markee on second in the seventh after she led off with a single and stole second with one out.
The Golden Falcons finally broke the 5-5 tie with three straight hits in the seventh for the walk-off.
That was the lone run Valver allowed in her three innings of relief.
Hamm joined Markee in scoring multiple runs.
Up Next
With next Tuesday's scheduled doubleheader at Kutztown cancelled, USciences returns from Easter Break to host Staten Island in its non-conference finale next Thursday at 2:30 p.m.
