Brandywine Falls On Final Day Of Spring Break Trip

CLERMONT, Fla. – The Penn State Brandywine softball team dropped both games during the final day of its Spring Break trip to Florida, falling 1-0 in eight innings against Wheaton (Mass.) before being topped 8-6 by Carlow.

Game One: Wheaton 1, Penn State Brandywine 0

Brandywine's first game of the day was a pitchers' duel between Olivia Bowers (Webster, N.Y./Webster Thomas) and Wheaton's Payton Blankenheim-Brown.

Bowers went seven scoreless, striking out five, while scattering seven hits, but did not factor into the decision.

Brandywine had runners on the corners with two outs in the sixth and put a runner at third base in the eighth with two outs, but was unable to push a run across the plate against Blankenheim-Brown.

Wheaton plated the game-winning run via a sacrifice fly during the bottom of the eighth inning.

Ava Rodgers (Gloucester City, N.J./Gloucester City) led the Brandywine offense with a pair of singles.

Game Two: Carlow 8, Penn State Brandywine 6

Brandywine fell behind 8-2 and could not complete the comeback during its final contest during its eight-game Spring Break trip.

Valentina Capra (Kenilworth, N.J./David Brearley) and Bowers both had two hits to pace the Brandywine offense. Capra also collected two RBI, while Emma McElroy (Mountainside, N.J./Governor Livingston) recorded a hit, one stolen base and two runs scored. Isabella Hurta (Colts Neck, N.J./Red Bank Catholic) tossed three scoreless relief innings in the circle.

A Capra RBI single followed by Ava Craddock's (Springfield, Pa./Springfield) run-scoring groundout tied the game at 2-2 through one inning.

The Celtics put two runs on the board in the third and added four more one frame later.

Capra notched her second run-scoring single of the day in the fourth, while McElroy scored via error to trim the deficit to 8-4. Kaylee Mushinski (Allentown, N.J./Allentown) drove in a run with a base hit and later scored on a wild pitch to make the count 8-6 through five innings, but that is as close as Brandywine would get.

Brandywine (4-6) returns home to face Haverford on Tuesday beginning at 3:00 PM at Maple Zone.