ASTON, Pa. --- The No. 13 Moravian College softball team split a non-conference doubleheader with Ursinus College at the Maplezone Sports Institute Sports Village in Aston, Pennsylvania Thursday afternoon with the Bears rallying for a 6-3 win in the opener and the Greyhounds posting a 5-3 victory in the nightcap.
Moravian, now 12-2 on the season, had five hits in the opener with junior catcher Janae Matos going 1-for-2 with two RBIs. Junior Josie Novak tossed the first 4.1 innings with six runs on nine hits to go with four strikeouts while junior Amanda Carisone pitched the final 1.2 innings with a pair of strikeouts.
The Greyhounds jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Sophomore shortstop Kaela Kane singled with one out and sophomore center fielder Kat Spilman walked. Matos connected on a two-RBI double to the gap in left center, her team-leading ninth double of the season, to score Kane and Spilman.
The Bears scored a run in the bottom of the first to cut Moravian's lead in half. The Blue and Grey answered in the top of the second with an RBI single from senior left fielder Julie Siragusa that scored senior second baseman Lizzie Deutsch. The game would remain 3-1 for Moravian until Ursinus scored five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to take a 6-3 lead.
Carisone improved to 7-0 in the circle with the win in the second game as she allowed three runs on nine hits while striking out five batters to raise her career total to 253, becoming the seventh player in school history to record 250 strikeouts.
Moravian collected seven hits in the second contest with Kane going 2-for-3 with an RBI and sophomore second baseman Julia DeMarco hitting her first collegiate home run.
The Greyhounds took a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Kane scored on a passed ball with the bases loaded. The Blue and Grey pushed the lead to 2-0 in the fourth when DeMarco led off the frame with a solo homer to left field, and Moravian added a run on the fifth for a 3-0 advantage when Spilman led off with a double and scored on an RBI ground out by Matos.
The Hounds pushed two runs across the plate in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI sacrifice fly by Kane that scored freshman outfielder Emily Stanilious, who had walked as a pinch hitter, and an error. The Bears scored three times in the top of the seventh before Carisone shut the door.
Moravian is scheduled to open its 2017 Landmark Conference season on Saturday, March 25 in a doubleheader at Elizabethtown College beginning at 1:00 p.m.