Beaver Softball Splits Doubleheader with New Kensington

New Kensington, Pa 

Evan Pinchot - The Penn State Beaver softball team traveled to New Kensington on Monday afternoon, splitting their doubleheader series to stay at .500 on the season. 

In game one of their doubleheader, the story of Beaver's win starts and ends with the performance that Sophomore Desiree Aponte (Irving, Tx Ranchview) put in. With runs coming at a premium in the game, Aponte's 4 hit, 4 strikeout shutout is what kept Beaver in this game. After 4 scoreless innings, Beaver was able to string together 3 runs in the fifth inning due to some opportune errors by New Kensington, which eventually led to Freshman Kylie Magnotta (Monaca, Pa / Central Valley High School) topping off the inning with an RBI double. This would be all of the scoring from both sides in game one, as Beaver would eventually come out of this matchup with a 3-0 victory. 

Game two of the series was a tough battle for these two teams, as they would need extra innings to eventually decide a winner in this one. With Aponte back on the mound in game two, New Kensington seemed to figure out how to get their offense started against her as they started out with a 1 run lead after the first inning. After this, Beaver and New Kensington would go back and forth until the fifth inning, when Beaver would explode for 3 runs at the plate to tied up the game. After quiet sixth and seventh innings, both teams would end up scoring the eight to push the game to another extra innings. After getting one out in the bottom of the ninth inning, Aponte would finally crack and let up an RBI single that would eventually lose the game for Beaver, falling by a final score of 6-5. 

After splitting their series with New Kensington on Monday afternoon, Beaver maintains their .500 record, sitting at an 8-8 conference and overall record. With an outstanding performance on the mound, including a 4 hit shutout in game one, today's player of the day for Beaver is Sophomore Desiree Aponte. Beaver will look to finally climb above their .500 record when they travel to Penn State Fayette on Tuesday, April 21, for another doubleheader. Game one is set to start at 2 pm, with game two to start at 4 pm.