COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Kaitlyn Willis got the Ursinus College softball team to the edge of a sweep, and Zoe Heinke took the Bears over the top.
Willis, the club's sophomore ace, tossed a four-hit shutout in the opener of Saturday's Centennial Conference twin bill against McDaniel, then worked four strong frames of the nightcap, Heinke navigating a pair of late jams for her first save as the Bears held on for a 4-3 victory and their first sweep of the Green Terror since 2010.
Freshman Samantha Garritano was the hero in Game One, delivering a base hit up the middle to score sophomore Bridget Winay with the game's lone run as the Bears (10-14, 4-6) walked off with a 1-0 thriller.
Willis was dominant all afternoon against the CC's most prolific offense. McDaniel (16-12, 6-4) entered the weekend leading the league in runs, hits, doubles, and batting average but was relegated to almost nothing as Willis worked her magic on the mound. The right-hander completed 11 innings on the day, surrendering one unearned run and throwing 173 pitches (120 of them strikes) in a yeoman's effort that left the Bears with a pair of one-run victories.
Battling pitch for pitch with a dangerous offense and McDaniel counterpart Fiona Johnson, Willis struck out eight and walked two in the opener. She stranded two in the top of the first but was otherwise on cruise control, while Johnson pitched into and out of trouble until Garritano's game-winner.
Ursinus left the bases loaded in the second and stranded a pair in the third and fourth, unable to break through until its final at-bat. After a groundout, Winay drew a one-out walk and went to second on a base hit by freshman Callie Crouse. Garritano followed with a shot back through the box, Winay dashing around third and coming home with the Bears' second CC walk-off this season.
Crouse finished 3-for-4 in the first game, and first-year Kayla Quinn was 2-for-4 with a double.
The Green Terror broke Willis' spell in the first inning of the nightcap, as Lindsey Miller reached on an error and came around on Olivia Kipe's double to left-center. But Willis held them there, and Crouse leveled the playing field with a two-out homer in the bottom half, her second of the season.
Garritano singled and took second on a wild pitch, then scored when the McDaniel shortstop was mishandled a hot shot by Heinke.
The Bears added to their lead in the fourth. Freshman Alexa DelMonte doubled and scored on a ground-out by freshman Sammi Donato. With freshman Gabrielle Manto on third, Quinn broke for second. The throw beat her to the bag but bounded into center field, allowing Manto to dash home and make it 4-1.
Heinke replaced Willis in the fifth, and had to avert serious danger in each of the last two frames. McDaniel loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth, but Heinke wiggled out of trouble, fielding a high chopper and tossing to DelMonte for a force at home. She then got Taylor Fletcher to bounce into an inning-ending 1-2-3 double play.
The Green Terror made one last stand in the seventh, cutting the deficit to 4-3 on Jamie Weisser's two-out RBI single. Heinke bore down, striking out Taylor Hishon on three pitches to polish off the program's first home sweep of McDaniel since 2009.
Kipe finished 2-for-3 with an RBI in the nightcap for McDaniel, and Miller scored two runs. Alex Herschman (2-2) allowed four runs (two earned) and seven hits in six innings.
Ursinus turned two double plays in Game Two; the first came in the top of the third, when the Green Terror had runners on first and second with one out but were thwarted when sophomore Rachel Hyman fielded a grounder, stepped on the bag, and fired across to Crouse for the 5-3 twin killing.
Willis (7-5) picked up the win in both ends of the doubleheader. She gave up just two hits and the one unearned run with two walks and three strikeouts in the nightcap. When the dust settled on an impressive sweep, Willis had struck out 11 to four walks and conceded only six hits in 11 innings.
Heinke's save was the first of her career, and she had one hit in Game Two, putting her one away from 100.
The Bears' CC journey continues with a pair of games at Haverford on Tuesday, April 19.
