DOYELSTOWN (Pa.) – The Delaware Valley University softball team started Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom play no Sunday afternoon and earned a split with visiting FDU-Florham. The Aggies dropped game one, 4-1, but bounced back with an 8-2 victory in the night cap.
DelVal remained at .500 overall with a 5-5 mark while the Devils picked up their first win of the season to move to 1-7.
Game two was full of milestones for the Aggies as they gave the ball to freshman Olivia Monismith to start the game and she went the distance to earn her first collegiate victory from the circle. Monismith helped her own cause in the second inning with an RBI single. Later in the frame, senior Maddy O'Donohue picked up her 99th career hit with an RBI single that also loaded the bases for fellow classmate Jamie Stefani. Stefani looked at the first pitch strike, and sent the next pitch on a rope over the right field fence for her first career grand slam and a 6-0 DelVal lead.
After FDU scored one in the top of the fourth, the Aggies drove in two in the bottom of the frame thanks to an error to make it 8-1 going into the fifth. The Devils scored once more in the fifth, but were shut out the rest of the way.
O'Donohue had one more highlight to add as she came to the plate for her last at-bat in the bottom of the sixth. She took a 2-2 pitch and sent it right back up the middle for the 100th hit of her career and the Aggies held on and celebrated the 8-2 win.
Monismith went seven innings allowing seven hits and two earned runs with two strikeouts and two walks surrendered in her first win. Kaleigh Oplinger pitched seven innings for the Devils and gave up seven walks, eight runs (zero earned), and five hits.
Gabby Young led FDU with a 3-for-3 effort and a run scored with two stolen bases. O'Donohue's two hits and Stefani's four RBIs led the way for DelVal.
The Aggies scored first in game one when Julie Burns singled to center field to score Adina Brucie from second base after she had singled and swiped second.
In the top of the fourth, FDU responded with two runs on three hits. Nicole Casale and Tara Morash got aboard with singles and Courtney Conway drove them in with a double to the gap in left center field to put the Devils on top for good.
The Aggies managed just two hits the rest of the way and FDU added one in the sixth and one more in the seventh for the 4-1 final.
Ciara Hoffman pitched seven strong innings, allowing four hits and one earned run with six strikeouts, for the Devils to earn the win. Conway, Morash, and Dani Sames each had two hits.
Stefani suffered the loss after allowing four runs (three earned) on nine hits with two strikeouts.
DelVal will head to Cedar Crest College for a doubleheader on Thursday beginning at 3 p.m.
