#1 BEHREND, #3 MOUNT ALOYSIUS ADVANCE TO AMCC SOFTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

With five games being played on Friday in the AMCC Softball Championship Tournament, #1 Penn State Behrend and #3 Mount Aloysius College are the last two remaining teams and will face each other Sunday morning at 9:00am in the AMCC championship game. 

GAME 5:
#4 Penn State Altoona d. #2 Pitt-Bradford, 4-3
Penn State Altoona scored two in the top of the first, helped by a long ball from Cameryn Feathers. Alyssa Fisher started the game with a base hit to right, and one batter later, Feathers hit her fourth home run of the season to give the Lions a 2-0 lead.

Pitt-Bradford got a run back in the bottom of the second, when Lexi Peters led off with a single and later scored on a double play ball to cut the Lions' advantage to 2-1.

Penn State Altoona got that run back with one swing of the bat in the next half inning, when Feathers' two-out solo shot to left center made it 3-1 in the top of the third. The homer was her team-leading fifth of the season. Her pair of homers tie for the most home runs hit in a game in Penn State Altoona softball history.

The Panthers tied the score at 3-3 in the bottom of the third on Sara Stroup's two-run single to left, and that score stood up over the next two innings.

Penn State Altoona was able to come up a run in the top of the sixth to jump back into the lead. After reaching on a fielder's choice and stealing second, Lauck put herself in scoring position with two outs. Storm delivered a big hit to drive in Lauck, singling to center to put the Lions up 4-3.

The Lions worked around a pair of singles by Pitt-Bradford in the bottom of the sixth to put up a zero, and the Panthers threatened again in the seventh. With one out, back-to-back Penn State Altoona errors allowed Pitt-Bradford to put two runners aboard. But Nau and the Lions recorded the final two outs without allowing any damage, and Penn State Altoona escaped with the one-run victory.

GAME 6:
#3 Mount Aloysius d. #5 Pitt-Greensburg, 2-0
Mount Aloysius scored two runs in the bottom of the third inning and that is all they would need to defeat Pitt-Greensburg and eliminate the Bobcats from the tournament. Grace Gardini brought in the first run for the Mounties when she doubled to left center, scoring Maya Capozzoli for the 1-0 lead. Whitney Cole followed by singling to righ field and plating Gardini. 

Sierra Walters pitched the complete game for the Mounties, only giving up one hit and striking out four. 

GAME 7:
#1 Penn State Behrend d. #6 Hilbert, 6-1
Penn State Behrend handed the Hawks their first loss of the tournament, as the Lions managed six runs on nine hits, getting a 3-for-4 performance from Maria Jones. Consecutive singles started the bottom of the first inning, as Jones and Megan Petitte reached with a hit and stole a base to put runners on second and third. Sierra Williams got an RBI groundout to score Jones and Kayla Salvini knocked in Petitte with a single through the left side. Jones, who led with three hits, also scored three of the six runs. In the third, the Lions made it 3-0 with Jones leading off with a triple and scoring on a Jocelyn McNany sacrifice fly. In the fourth inning, pitcher Kayla Lindberg recorded her 100^th strikeout in the final out of the frame. Each team exchanged a run in the fifth to make it 4-1. The duo of Jones and McNany in the fifth got Behrend a fourth run. Jones tallied a double and McNany drove her home with an RBI single. Two more insurance runs were added in the sixth for the final margin.

Lindberg went the distance, allowing five hits and one run and finishing with three K's.

GAME 8:
#3 Mount Aloysius d. #4 Penn State Altoona, 6-5
In a back-and-forth game, Mount Aloysius had the last word when it came from behind to win on a walkoff in the seventh. Penn State Altoona established leads of 2-0 and 5-3, and the Lions clung to a 5-4 advantage heading into the final inning. But the Mounties put two on the board in the bottom of the seventh to move on in the tournament and eliminate the Lions.

Penn State Altoona staked out a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Mount Aloysius grabbed the lead in the bottom of the third, when an Olivia Zeigler two-run double to right and a Whitney Cole sacrifice fly to left put the Mounties up, 3-2.

The Lions quickly worked their way back on top in the next half inning. Altoona put three runs in the top of the fourth to put themselves up 5-3. The Mounties then closed the gap to one in the fifth, when Grace Gardini's two-out RBI single to center cut the Lions' lead to 5-4. Mount Aloysius completed its comeback in the bottom of the seventh. With one out, two singles put runners at first and second for the Mounties, and a fielding error in the next play allowed one run to score, tying the game at 5-5 and moving the go-ahead run to third base. After a strikeout made it two outs, Gardini legged out a walkoff, infield RBI single to shortstop to help Mount Aloysius to a 6-5 victory.

GAME 9:
#3 Mount Aloysius d. #6 Hilbert, 8-0
A combination of early and often offense from the Mounties, and just two hits from the Hawks, led to the 8-0 final score.
 
Mount Aloysius wasted no time getting on the board, scoring three runs in the first and another in the third to jump out to a 4-0 lead after two innings of play. After a scoreless third inning, the Mounties picked up the offense in the bottom of the fourth with four more runs to double the lead and make it 8-0. 

The Mounties got two hits a piece from Whitney Cole and Maggie Cypher, while Cypher, Sarah Henninger, and Annalyn Issacs each recorded two RBI.

Sierra Walters pitched the full five innings, giving up just two hits and striking out one.