Mont Alto, PA. - After struggling in their first eight games of the season, the Penn Greater Allegheny Softball team (0-10, 0-10) put up their best performance of the season when they took on Penn State Mont Alto on Saturday. Despite their efforts, they still took a sweep losing by scores of 12-1 and 6-5.
The first game saw PSUGA give up a big lead early and they were never able to recover. They gave up seven runs combined in the first two innings of play before they were able to break through for their first run of the game in the top of the third.
After a fielders choice and a single by Alyssa Guzzie (Pittsburgh, PA./Fox Chapel HS) put runners at secomd and third with one out Savanna Simm (West Mifflin, PA./West Mifflin HS) came to the plate with a chance to do damage. She would hit into a sacrifice fly scoring Ivy Mervis (Pittsburgh, PA./Allderdice HS) got thrown out trying to advance on the play ending the inning.
That was all the offense PSUGA could manage in the game and Mont Alto added two in the third and three in the fourth enacting the mercy rule and handing PSUGA the 12-1 loss. Guzzie led the way with a 2-2 effort while Holly George (Homer City, PA./Homer-Center HS) added a 1-1 day with a walk.
Game two saw PSUGA get ahead right away as Tara Love (Chandler, AZ./Campo Verde HS) hit an RBI groundout to get her team ahead 1-0. Mont Alto andwered with a run of their own in the bottom half and the game was knotted up at 1-1 after one. The next break through came in the third inning as PSUGA took advantage of Mont Alto mistakes.
After a Guzzie single to start the inning, George hit a groundball to short thay allowed her to score and gave PSUGA a 2-1 lead. After a double by Love, Haley Snyder (Connelsville, PA./Connelsville HS) got into the mix reaching on an error that scored Love and extended the lead to 3-1. Sam Snashell (Buffalo, NY./Charter School for Applied Tech.) Added an RBI single and PSUGA lead 4-1.
Mont Alto responded with two in the fourth and the team's traded runs in the fifth as PSUGA headed into the bottom of the seventh ahead 5-4 and looking for their first win of the season. However, it was not meant to be as Mont Alto scored two in the bottom of the inning to pick up the 6-5 win.
Snashell.led the way in game two going 3-4 with an RBI while Simm finished 2-4 with an RBI in the loss. PSUGA now moves to 0-10 on the season as they look for a bounce back performance in yhe series finale on Sunday.
Sunday's doubleheader is set to start at 11 a.m. With game two following after at 1 p.m.