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Box Score 2 LYNDHURST, N.J. – The Felician College softball team saw its Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference playoff hopes damaged by a pair of conference losses to the visiting University of the Sciences, 7-4 and 5-1, on Saturday afternoon at Matera Field. Juniors Chelsea DeGuzman (Clermont, Fla./South Lake) and Taylor Parker (Surrey, British Columbia/Semiahmoo) were each 3 for 6 for Felician.
With three games left to play, Felician (18-20, 10-13 CACC) fell 2 ½ games behind seventh-place Bloomfield College and two games back of eighth-place Philadelphia University in the CACC standings. The top eight teams in the 14-school conference at season's end will qualify for the CACC Tournament. The Golden Falcons are now also only ½ game ahead of USciences (10-22, 9-13) in 10th.
In Saturday's opening game, the Golden Falcons erased an early 2-0 deficit by tallying four times in the bottom of the fourth inning. Parker led off the frame with a single, then beat the throw on two consecutive sacrifice attempts, allowing her team to load the bases. One out later, DeGuzman tied the game with a two-run single up the middle. With runners on second and third and two out, Haylee Williams (Carlsbad, Calif./Carlsbad) delivered another two-run single to give Felician a 4-2 lead.
The advantage for the hosts was short-lived. In the top of the fifth, USciences freshman Kiersten Badzgon (Pittsburgh, Pa./Keystone Oaks) came through with a one-out RBI double, advanced to third two batters later on a wild pitch, and scored on a single from Jenna Hohenberger (Clementon, N.J./Overbrook).
Freshman right-hander Alleigha Robinson (Kent, Wash./Kentlake) (3-3) entered the pitching circle in a tie game for Felician to start the sixth inning, and was greeted by a leadoff triple by Devil senior Devon DeBellis (Marlton, N.J./Bishop Eustace). A bunt single by Ashley Lewis (Willingboro, N.J./Willingboro) plated DeBellis with the go-ahead run. Robinson escaped a bases-loaded jam without further damage, but the Devils reached her for two runs in the seventh.
USciences sophomore Cassie Lapotsky (Ashland, Pa./North Schuykill) (5-11) threw 138 pitches in a complete-game effort. She struck out three batters and walked five as the Devils out-hit Felician, 15-7. The Golden Falcons loaded the bases with two out in the sixth inning, and brought the tying run to the plate with none out in the seventh, but Lapotsky worked out of trouble each time.
Lewis went 3 for 4 plus a walk from the leadoff spot in the Devils' batting order. Williams, Parker and DeGuzman had two hits apiece for Felician.
USciences received another strong pitching effort in Game 2, this time from freshman righty Nicole Ayers (Abbottstown, Pa./New Oxford). Only a sixth-inning solo home run by Mercedes Montanez (Vista, Calif./Rancho Buena Vista) kept Ayers from a shutout. She tossed 121 pitches in a six-hitter, striking out two batters while walking five, and stranded 10 Golden Falcon baserunners.
Felician senior right-hander Tori Bradburn (Ridge, Md.) (8-7) also pitched a six-hitter, but the Devils made the most of their offensive opportunities. In the top of the first, Badzgon had an RBI single and Brittany Granahan (Maple Shade, N.J./Maple Shade) scored on the back end of a first-and-third double steal as USciences took advantage of two Felician passed balls.
DeBellis had an RBI single in the fourth inning, and Granahan and Hohenberger produced run-scoring hits in the fifth.
