GRANTHAM, Pa. – The Messiah softball team split with Widener University today falling in a slug fest 11-8 in game one but bounced back to win game two 4-2. Carrie Fix went 3-7 with two RBI's and one run scored and Angie Stephano went 3-4 in the second game. Erin Cressman drew five walks increasing her season total to 28 which is close to the program record of 31 for walks in a season. Jaelyn Harbold (0-1) suffered the loss in game one and Joy Kolakowski (6-3) earned the win in game two.
 
Messiah is now 14-12 on the year and 6-1 in the MAC Commonwealth. They will be hosting Lebanon Valley college next Wednesday Apr. 11 with the games beginning at 3:00 p.m.
 
Game One: Messiah 8, Widener 11
The first game turned out to be a slug fest as both teams racked up hits, Messiah finishing with 15 and Widener with 12. Defense struggled a little today as the Falcons made three errors in the game.
 
Carrie Fix got things started in the first inning hitting a homer to left center and then Haylee Anders singled to third base. With one out, Erin Cressman and Isabel Seise both drew walks to load the bases. On the next play, Anige Stephano hit a ball to the second baseman who made an error as Anders scored on the play. McKenzie Tebbs then singled to left field scoring Cressman and Seise for runs four and five in the inning. Later with two outs, Tebbs scored on a wild pitch and after the first inning Messiah had a 6-0 lead.
 
Widener took advantage in their half of the inning earning back three of the six runs they gave up getting five hits off pitcher Madelyn Yannetti and the score was 6-3 heading into the second inning. In the top of the second Erin Cressman earned another walk with one out and advanced into scoring position on a single by Isabel Seise. Stephano then singled to center field bringing home the seventh run of the game for Messiah.
 
The Pride offense kept getting hits off Yannetti and after scoring two more runs Jaelyn Harbold entered in relief who got the Falcon defense out of the jam with the score 7-5 after two innings completed. The Falcons added one more run in the third when Fix cracked a double to right center as Samantha Esper scored after hitting a single and stealing second to get things going.
 
In the bottom of the third Widener scored three runs to tie the game and then took the lead over 9-8 after scoring another run in the fourth. Their last two runs came in the fifth inning off three hits as they extended their advantage 11-8. Messiah had scoring opportunities in the sixth and seventh innings but left three runners on base and so fell in game one.
 
Game Two: Messiah 4, Widener 2
The second game went more smoothly for Messiah as they came up victorious 4-2 to earn the split. Hits were a different story than game one as Widener had five and Messiah four in game two.
 
Messiah started things early with Erin Cressman hitting a two-run shot to center field for a 2-0 lead. Widener evened it up in their half of the inning with a RBI double by Katie Sterling and then a RBI single from Carli Benozich.
 
For the next three innings the game stayed tied 2-2 as neither team was able to score. In the top of the fifth the Falcons regained the lead when with two outs Haylee Anders hit a single to left field and then Amber Bingaman hit a single. With two runners on Cressman was intentionally walked and then Isabel Seise came up big hitting a two-run single to left field as Messiah went up 4-2. Defense was solid for the Falcons as they retiring the Pride three-up-three down for the final three innings and earned the win.