Peace Softball Goes 2-2 at Atlancic vs. East Challenge Eight Pacers Hit Twelve Homeruns Over Weekend

The Peace Softball team traveled to Virginia Beach, VA. this weekend to compete in the Atlantic vs. East Challenge, hosted by Christopher Newport University. The Pacers went 2-2 defeating Polytechnic University (12-4) and Virginia Wesleyan University (6-5) on day one, and losing to Albright College (7-9) and University of Rutgers-Newark (8-12) on day two.

On Friday, in game one of the Atlantic vs. East Coast Challenge, Peace annihilated Polytechnic University of New York, 12-4. Peace took the field first as Polytechnic jumped out with 3 runs in the top of the first inning. Peace answered when they stepped up to the plate, as Holly Braswell hit her first home run of the weekend and drove in Joanie Blevins and Lauren Pleasant to tie the score at 3. Peace would go ahead with a double by Kenni Seagroves to bring in Ashley Stansbury who singled. Seagroves reached third base on a passed ball and scored the fifth run of the inning as Megan Melchiorre reached on an error by the short stop. Peace then held Polytechnic scoreless in the top of the second and scored two more runs in the bottom of the inning on a two run homer by Braswell, who brought in Blevins. In the top of the third, Polytechnic would score one run and then hold Peace scoreless in the bottom of the inning to close the gap at 5-4. Stansbury would go on to strike out two of the Polytechnic batters in the top of the fourth and short stop Summer Evans made the play at first for the third out. In the bottom of the fourth, the first three batters popped up for a short inning. Peace picked up their second wind in the bottom of the fifth, scoring four more runs on an RBI by Ashley Weathersbee and a three run homer by Summer Evans. In the bottom of the sixth, Ashley Stansbury homered for the final run of the game. Stansbury was also credited with the win from the mound, striking out ten Polytechnic players and advancing to 1-1 overall in her first season pitching with the Pacers.

Game two was much closer as Peace defeated Virginia Wesleyan College 6-5. After three innings of play, Peace was scoreless as Wesleyan only scored one run. In the bottom of the fourth, Braswell once again stepped up and hit one out of the park to tie the score at 1-1. Wesleyan answered in the top of the fifth as the first two batters hit 1-run homers to put them up 3-1. Wesleyan would go on to score two more runs to push their lead to three with Wesleyan up 4-1. Peace did not respond until the bottom of the sixth as the bats seemed to catch fire again as Lauren Pleasant would drive in the first run on a single, and Braswell hit yet another 2 run homer to tie the score 4-4 going into the seventh inning. Both teams held each other scoreless in the seventh and the game had to go to extra innings. Peace quickly picked up three outs and moved into the bottom of the eighth. Joanie Blevins was placed on second base and Lauren Pleasant sacrificed to move Blevins into scoring position on third. Braswell was intentionally walked and with runners on first and third, freshman Ashley Stansbury singled to drive in the winning run. Stansbury was once again credited with the win ending the day at 2-0 from the mound, 2-1 overall.

On day two of the tournament, Peace lost the first game to Albright College 7-9. Peace batted first and Joanie Blevins, batting in the second slot, hit a homer to put Peace up 1-0. Peace would hold Albright scoreless in the bottom of the first. In the top of the second, Blevins picked up another RBI as her single brought Summer Evans home to put Peace ahead 2-0. Lauren Pleasant would then pick up an RBI with a single to bring Blevins home which put Peace up 3-0 heading into the bottom of the second. Albright would answer scoring their first run on an error by Ashley Weathersbee and would go on to score another on a passed ball to cut the Peace lead 3-2. In the top of the third, Kenni Seagroves homered to bring in two runs and put Peace ahead 5-2. Albright would inch just a little closer on double-RBI by Perlin and Albright headed into the fourth down 3-5. In the top of the fourth, Albright moved Hayes to the mound for Moist to try to stop the Pacers active bats. The plan worked as Peace would only pick up one hit moving into the bottom of the fourth. Albright took the lead in the bottom of the inning on a 3-run homer by Keys to put them up 6-5. The fifth inning was a wash as neither team picked up any hits or runs. In the top of the sixth, Peace scored one run on an RBI by Kristen Crandall to tie the game at 6 all. Albright once again answered scoring three runs on RBI singles by Romond and Keys, and Lynch scored the other on a passed ball to put Albright up 9-6. Peace fought hard as Kristyn Trodgen stepped up and homered to cut the lead 9-7, but Peace ended up short and took the loss. Ashley Stansbury took the loss from the mound dropping to 2-2 overall.

In the final game of the tournament, Peace dropped to the University of Rutgers-Newark 12-8. The game was scoreless until the Peace bats once again came alive in the bottom of the second inning. Kenni Seagrroves drove in the first run with an RBI-single and ended up crossing the plate on a passed ball to put Peace up 2-0. Ashley Weathersbee singled and scored the third run on a passed ball. Joanie Blevins was walked and Lauren Pleasant homered to pick up two more runs as Peace headed into the top of the third with a 5-0 lead. Rutgers would tie the game up in the third inning scoring 5 runs on three hits and 3 Peace errors. After a scoreless bottom of the third for Peace, Rutgers picked up three more runs in the top of the fourth to put them ahead 8-5. Ashley Stansbury stepped up with another home run in the bottom of the fourth scoring one run as Peace cut away at the lead and headed into the fifth down 8-6. Stansbury took over on the mound for Blevins in the top of the fifth and quickly forced three outs for Peace, but the bottom of the inning would not produce any runs for the Pacers. Stansbury struck the first two batters out in the top of the sixth and the third batter grounded out to Summer Evans for three up three down. Joanie Blevins drove in the first run for Peace in the bottom of the inning and Kristen Crandall scored on a passed ball to tie the game at 8 all. The seventh inning was scoreless for both teams sending them into extra innings. In the top of the eighth Rutgers would score 4 runs on four hits and one error and Peace would not be able to answer in the bottom of the eighth as all three hitters popped up and Peace took the loss 12-8.

The Pacers went 2-2 on the weekend hitting an amazing twelve homeruns in just four games. Peace advanced to 7-5 overall and will head west for a Sunday double-header with Sweet Briar College in Roanoke, VA at 1:00 pm tomorrow