Season Photo Gallery

Center Valley, PA (April 28, 2012) – Junior Julie Brugger went 5-for-8 with seven RBIs in the two games leading the DeSales University softball team to a split with Manhattanville College by scores of 3-1 and 9-7 in Freedom Conference action on Saturday afternoon.

In the opener, freshman Rachel Vogel pitched her second straight gem, scattering eight hits over seven innings allowing just one unearned run and striking out three.  DSU scored once in the second inning on an RBI bloop single from freshman Carly Bartholomew and twice more in the fifth on an RBI double from Brugger and an RBI single from freshman Shelby Wilson.

Vogel improved to 6-5 on the year with the win.  Senior Brianna Chilcoat scored the game-winning run after a singling and stealing second base in the fifth inning prior to Brugger's double.  Brugger finished with two hits as did senior Christine Petrilla, Wilson, and Bartholomew.

In the second game, DSU was cruising the first five innings, leading 5-0, and the Valiants had just three hits off senior Katie Morrissey, who struck out nine, including the side in the fifth.

But the Manhattanville bats came alive, scoring four times in the sixth and five more times in the seventh to earn a 9-7 come-from-behind win to lock up the #1 seed in next weekend's Freedom Conference playoffs.

DSU took a 1-0 lead in the first on back-to-back doubles from Chilcoat and Brugger.  In the second, DeSales led 4-0 after Brugger launched a long three-run home run to left-field and after freshman Taylor Kelly's inside the park home run in the fourth after two Valiant outfielders collided trying to make the catch, the Bulldogs held a 5-0 lead.

A solo homer started the sixth for MC followed by three hits and a walk over the next five batters before junior Brittany Wilson entered the game to record the last two outs with DSU leading, 5-4.  In the bottom of the sixth, the Bulldogs tacked on two more runs on another two-RBI single from Brugger, but after the first MVille batter was retired, three straight hits, including a three-run homer to right-field, tied the game and four more singles later in the inning led to two more runs and ultimately the win.

Wilson took the loss allowing five runs over 1.1 innings pitched in relief of Morrissey who was brilliant thru five innings before running into trouble in the sixth.  Morrissey struck out nine, giving her 405 strikeouts in her career, making her just the second player in school-history to record 400 career K's.

Kelly was 2-for-4 with two runs scored, Brugger finished 3-for-4 with six RBIs, and Chilcoat scored twice in game two.

The Bulldogs do return to action one more time this season when they host Alvernia University in a non-conference doubleheader beginning at 3:30 pm on Tuesday afternoon.