LATROBE, Pa. – If the Geneva College softball team was looking for a performance to turn its season in the right direction heading into the final week of the regular season, Saturday may have been it. Facing a Saint Vincent squad ahead of them in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) standings, the Golden Tornadoes came through with two victories, winning game one 5-2, and then seeing junior Peri Ceasri's (El Dorado Hills, Calif./Vista Del Lago) seventh-inning home run in game two send Geneva to a 2-1 victory, completing the sweep. The sweep was Geneva's first of the conference season, improving its record to 16-12 overall, 6-6 in the PAC, and it pulled the Golden Tornadoes even with Saint Vincent in the standings, whose record is now 17-7, 6-6 in the PAC.
In game one, junior Haley Smith (Joshua Tree, Calif./Yucca Valley) got the start in the circle, and the Golden Tornadoes gave her some early run support.
Senior Nicole West (Glenwood, Md./McDonogh), sophomore Elishea Reed (Lanse, Pa./West Branch) and senior Paige Dill (Youngstown, Ohio/Boardman) led off the second inning with singles to load the bases with no one out, and junior Danielle Goodman (Glen Burnie, Md./Calvary Baptist), senior Sarah Johnson (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Mountain Vista) and junior Madison Forsythe (Trafford, Pa./Penn-Trafford) each came through with RBIs to give Geneva a 3-0 lead.
Smith worked around traffic all game, with Bearcats getting their leadoff batter on in all seven innings, but the only inning Saint Vincent could score was in the third when the Bearcats plated two runners.
Geneva added two insurance runs in the fourth when Goodman and Johnson got on base to start the inning, and both later came around to score, extending the Golden Tornado lead to 5-2.
Smith took it from there, recording the final out on a fly ball to centerfield in the bottom of the seventh with the bases full of Bearcats. She earned the complete-game victory, her ninth win of the season, giving up eight hits and two runs, while striking out two.
Forsythe and Dill led the offense with two hits apiece in game one.
West got the start in the circle in game two, and Geneva got on the board in the top of the first when Johnson led off with a single and came around to score on a double from sophomore Julia Hart (Prospect, Pa./Slippery Rock).
The Golden Tornadoes couldn't get much else going the rest of the game against Saint Vincent ace Olivia Bushore, though, and Saint Vincent caught a break in the fifth when a fly ball to right field with two outs got lost in the sun, allowing the Bearcats to tie up the score at 1-1.
That set up Ceasri's heroics in the top of the seventh. After the first batter was retired, Ceasri sent a 1-1 pitch the opposite way, clearing the right field fence and breaking the 1-1 tie.
The victory didn't come easily in the bottom of the inning, though. Saint Vincent opened the seventh with a double, and after one out was retired, a single up the middle allowed the Bearcats to put runners at second and third. However, West retired the next batter on a ground ball to short, with the runner at third base holding, and then senior right fielder Rachael Cardenas (Homestead, Fla./Miami Killian) secured a fairly deep drive to right to seal the victory.
West earned her seventh win of the season, pitching all seven innings while giving up eight hits and one run, striking out six.
Offensively, Geneva managed just six hits, with Forsythe and Hart each collecting a pair and Ceasri providing the game-winning blast, her first home run of the season.
The Golden Tornadoes now head into the final week of the season riding some momentum. Geneva begins the week with a doubleheader at Franciscan on Monday, followed by a home doubleheader against Thiel on Wednesday, which will be Senior Day. The regular season concludes with a doubleheader at W&J on Saturday.
Geneva College is a Christ-centered academic community that provides a comprehensive education to equip students for faithful and fruitful service to God and neighbor. Offering over 145 traditional undergraduate majors and programs, fully online Adult Degree Programs and high-demand graduate degrees, Geneva's programs are recognized for their high quality. Geneva has one of the top 100 undergraduate engineering programs in the nation, according to
U.S. News and World Report. Adhering to the truth of Scripture, a Geneva education is grounded in God's Word as well as in a core curriculum designed to prepare students vocationally to think, write and communicate well in today's world. Geneva was founded and is governed by the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA) and is a founding member of both the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) and IACE (International Association for Christian Education).
