starting pitching shines in softball losses

Women’s Tennis Drops CC Match One win against a regionally ranked doubles team and another against the Centennial Conference singles champion wasn’t enough for the Muhlenberg women’s tennis team, which lost 6-3 to 14th-ranked Johns Hopkins. Muhlenberg jumped out to a 2-1 lead following all doubles matches thanks to victories by freshmen pairs Caitie Druker/Sara Sutker and Danielle Winston/Lindsay Schmidt at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. Druker and Sutker claimed a prestigious 8-6 win against Ellen Berlinghof and Yasmine Elamir, who rank eighth in the latest edition of the Atlantic South Region doubles rankings. Jenn Powell upset the fall CC individual champion Brittany Matava, 6-4, 0-6, 6-4 at No. 1 to give the Mules their lone singles success on the day. Click here for box score.

The Muhlenberg softball team received outstanding starting pitching in its first home games of the season, but dropped a doubleheader to Cortland State, 2-0 and 8-1 in nine innings.

Junior Lara Kestenbaum allowed just one earned run in the opener, and senior Katie Vecchione (right) gave up one run on three hits in a five-inning Game 2 stint. The Red Dragons (8-4), who received votes in the most recent Division III poll, came into the day with a .316 team batting average.

The Mules (3-9) couldn’t generate any offense in the first game, managing just two baserunners.

In the second game, Cortland snapped a 0-0 tie with a run in the top of fifth, but Muhlenberg snapped its 19-inning scoreless streak by stringing together four singles, the last by junior Samantha Crist, to plate the tying run in the bottom of the inning. Crist went 3-for-4 in the nightcap.

The game remained 1-1 through the regulation seven innings. In the ninth, the Red Dragons took advantage of four Mule errors to score seven runs and break the game open.
Click here for line scores.