Penn splits doubleheader with West Chester

After losing seven games in a row, theAfter losing seven games in a row, theQuakers finally hold a lead and record a win Things are starting to fall into place for the Penn softball team. After a positive start in Florida, the Quakers had a rocky welcome home, struggling along with a six-game losing streak. But yesterday Penn began to put the key elements of the game together and split a doubleheader with West Chester. The Quakers lost the first game in a close 2-1 score, but snapped their 0-7 plague in the second game of the afternoon, winning 3-0. In the first game, Penn jumped out to a one-run lead in the first inning before West Chester came roaring back in the third with two runs. Despite a monster triple by Penn sophomore Jen Stanwix in the bottom of the third inning, Golden Rams starter Heather Packer held Penn scoreless the rest of way en route to a three-hitter. "After we got one run, they kind of shut us down," Penn coach Linda Carothers said. "We didn't attack at the plate anymore. We stayed aggressive defensively, we just made a concession offensively." But the Quakers were able to turn things around in the second game. Penn combined its defensive attack with solid pitching from sophomore Jen Strawley and aggressive swinging at the plate. The Quakers scored two runs in the third inning on a West Chester error and sophomore Amy Malerba's single to left field. Then junior Laurie Nestler tattooed the ball to deep left in the bottom of the sixth inning. Nestler's triple drove home junior Vicki Moore to add to Penn's lead. Nestler, who batted 3-for-3 in the second game, said that part of being aggressive at the plate is hitting the first pitch. "That really makes a difference," the centerfielder said. "It's usually a pitcher's best pitch and its good to jump on it. I try to look for it most of the time." Nestler also felt that the whole team was on the attack offensively. "I thought that everyone was swinging the bat really hard today. Everyone came out ready to play." One freshman that was particularly ready to play was second baseman Lauren Mishner. Mishner was quick to the ball at every key play. In the top of the sixth inning, two West Chester players reached base with no outs. But Mishner got Penn out of the inning by first catching two pop-ups. Then the freshman made an outstanding play by stopping a hard grounder deep in the hole. Mishner, who has been struggling at the plate, did not let her batting average affect her fielding. "I'm just working on relaxing right now," Mishner said. "I think right now my most important job is fielding. Everyone else can just pick me up in batting." Sophomore Jen Strawley rounded out Penn's strong performance with solid pitching. Still suffering with a broken pinky finger on her glove hand, Strawley kept West Chester scoreless in the Quakers first shutout since April of last season against La Salle. "I was a little shaky the first couple innings," Strawley said. "I didn't feel like anything was working, but I got through it without giving up any runs so I felt pretty good. I just kept hanging in there, and towards the end stuff started to work, and everyone was playing great behind me." According to Carothers, the team understood what it had to do to win the second game. "We told them [in between games] that we were on our game defensively, and what we had to do was attack the ball offensively."