Brandywine Tops Penn College 4-1; Reaches Second-Straight United East Title Game
ASTON, Pa. – No. 1 Penn State Brandywine will play for its second-straight United East Conference Softball Tournament championship after the Lions defeated No. 3 Penn College by a 4-1 score during the tournament winners' bracket game Friday afternoon.
Isabella Hurta (Colts Neck, N.J./Red Bank Catholic) allowed a leadoff single during the first inning, but yielded just two hits the rest of the way, shutting down the Wildcats' offense, to win her 10th decision of the spring. Hurta struck out one batter and did not issue a walk in 7.0 innings of work.
Aided by a Brandywine error, Penn College pushed its lone run across during the first frame, but Brandywine answered with a pair of scores during the bottom of inning.
Lexi Bussenger (Bangor, Pa./Bangor) legged out an infield single to start the first and later scored to tie the game as Ava Rodgers (Gloucester City, N.J./Gloucester City) dropped down her second squeeze bunt of the day. One batter later, Shelby DeCillis (Iselin, N.J./Colonia) lifted a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Emma McElroy (Mountainside, N.J./Governor Livingston) with the go-ahead run.
The score remained the same until the bottom of the sixth inning when Madie Culbertson (Havertown, Pa./Haverford) provided a pair of two-out insurance runs. Culbertson blooped a double down the right field line, allowing DeCillis and Kaylee Mushinski (Allentown, N.J./Allentown) to cross home.
Bussenger collected two hits, scored a run and swiped a base to lead the Brandywine offense.
Brandywine, which has won a team record 26-straight games, will play for its 11th-straight conference championship Saturday at 1:00 PM against an opponent still to be determined. The Lions defeated Penn College in last season's championship during Brandywine's first year as a United East member.
