Softball splits home doubleheader with Villanova

The Penn softball team shut out Villanova in the first game but dropped the second to stay at .500. Bases loaded. Two outs in a 1-0 game in the fifth inning. Penn freshman Jen Moore took a mighty cut at the 1-2 pitch, but the ball traveled only five feet from the plate. Villanova third baseman Jackie Pasquerella ran in to field the ball and flipped it to Josey Mikulyuk, but it ricocheted off the catcher's glove and allowed two Penn runners to score. Moore was thrown out at second, but not before the Quakers had extended their lead to 3-0. "I swung real hard but the ball didn't go anywhere," Moore said. "I was figuring, ok, forceout, inning over but I ran real hard to first base anyway. The next thing I know, two runs had scored and I was out at second." Penn (6-6) held on for a 3-0 win, but lost the second game of yesterday's doubleheader 5-2 against Villanova (10-4) at Warren Field. "Our performance at Florida carried over in the first game," coach Carol Kashow said. "We just need to keep the intensity up. Unfortunately, we let them jump ahead in the second game, but I truly think Villanova wasn't confident in victory until the last out." In the second game, Villanova took a 5-0 lead after three innings. Penn, meanwhile, was held hitless through the first four innings and could not score after its first two batters reached base in the fifth. Moore put the Quakers on the board with more heroics in the sixth, however. After striking out looking in her previous at-bat, she had two strikes on her this time. With a runner on, she powered a Faith Meisinger pitch well over the left-field fence. "The umpire was calling high outside pitches strikes," Moore said. "The ball was high and I took the ball all the way to the wall." "No way you catch Jen Moore looking twice in a row," Kashow said. Penn would get no closer, however. Sarah Dominic struck out and Clarisa Apostol grounded out with Allyson Emond at first to end the seventh, sealing the loss for the Quakers. Apostol had given Penn a 1-0 lead with a clutch two-out RBI single in the first game. The freshman went 3-for-8 on the day and has now hit safely in 11 of the team's 12 games. "I wasn't sure how different the level of playing would be here in Division I," Apostol said. "But I think playing in the American Softball Association summer league was a big help. The ASA is similar to Division I in terms of style of play." Suzanne Arbogast again pitched well for Penn in the first game. She scattered just four hits in blanking the Wildcats for her second consecutive shutout. She struck out 10 in her previous whitewashing of Maine, but Arbogast was more Greg Maddux than Randy Johnson yesterday, as she did not fan a single Villanova batter. "[Arbogast] was very good at keeping us in the game," Kashow said. "She gave our defense an opportunity to play, and that's how we're going to win ballgames." Penn's ace started the second game as well, but lasted only two batters into the second inning. Michelle Zaptin relieved Arbogast and immediately struck out Regina Speicher, but would surrender three runs in the inning on singles by Gina DeFrancosco and Kristen Verhoff. Zaptin pitched well in the last three innings, surrendering only one hit, but Penn could not overcome a five-run deficit and had to settle for a split. The Quakers will take the field again in a doubleheader against La Salle tomorrow.