COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – It was a tale of two games when the Ursinus College softball team hosted Muhlenberg in a Centennial Conference doubleheader on Saturday. The Bears managed only four hits in a 2-0 shutout loss in the opener before coming back to rout the Mules 9-1 in five innings, their first mercy-rule victory in a conference contest since defeating Swarthmore by the same score in 2013.

Senior Zoe Heinke picked up the win on the mound in Game 2, allowing one run on six hits with a pair of strikeouts after being honored alongside classmate Meredith Watters as part of pregame Senior Day festivities. Ursinus (13-17, 5-9) scored two runs in the third, four in the fourth, and two in the fifth, ultimately walking off with a shortened rout on freshman Sammi Donato's slicing double down the left-field line. Classmate Gabrielle Manto came around with the winning run, giving the Bears their first home victory over Muhlenberg (14-20, 7-7) since 2010.

Knotted at 1 in the third inning of the nightcap, the Bears took advantage of a Mule misplay to take control for good. With runners on second and third, Muhlenberg's third baseman bobbled a routine grounder, allowing freshman Samantha Garritano to beat out a late throw to first; freshman Kayla Quinn scored on the play, and Donato raced all the way home from second to give the home side a 3-1 edge.

Five straight Ursinus hitters reach base in the fourth, when the Bears scored four times. Sophomore Bridget Winay followed a two-run single by Quinn with a two-run double to the gap in right-center, chasing Mule starter Haley Fedak and swelling the bulge to 7-1.

An RBI groundout by Manto made it 8-1 with two outs in the fifth, and Donato's two-bagger to left closed the books on the day's action.

Heinke's two strikeouts left her just one shy of 200 for her career, and she was 1-for-2 with a run scored at the plate. Quinn finished 2-for-3 with two RBI and two runs, while Donato went 2-for-2 with two runs and an RBI and Manto scored two runs of her own.

Ursinus generated little off Muhlenberg's Haley Peterson in the opener, when Karissa Astrella's two-out, two-run double in the top of the first served as the game's only scoring. The Bears managed only four hits – two of them were of the infield variety – and stranded two on base in the third, sixth, and seventh innings. Ursinus had runners on first and second with one out in the seventh, but Peterson got a pop-up and a groundout to escape the threat.

Peterson (8-8) struck out three and walked one, throwing only 91 pitches in her seven frames.

Sophomore Kaitlyn Willis (7-8) was a tough-luck loser for the Bears. The right-hander went six innings, Astrella's two-out knock serving as her lone blemish. Willis allowed six hits, struck out one, and walked four.

Watters reached on a fielder's choice in a pinch-hit role in the opener, her second at-bat of the season.

Ursinus closes out its home schedule with a non-conference doubleheader against Rutgers-Camden on Sunday.