PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania softball team continued its city tour on Saturday, making the short trip to La Salle for a double dip with the Explorers. The Quakers won the first game, 3-0, and then used a stirring comeback from a 5-1 deficit to win Game 2, 8-5.
 
Penn is now 5-3 on the young season and has won five of its last six, while the Explorers are 0-15.
 
Game 1 – Penn 3, La Salle 0
The Quakers needed exactly one batter to score all the runs they would need in Saturday's opener. Emma Nedley opened the game with a double to center, then stole third and scored when the throw was off line.
 
Penn scored twice more in the second. Sarah Schneider reached on an outfield error, landing on second. She then stole third, and scored when Ashley Waco rapped an RBI single to center. Nedley then singled to left and Dana Anderson—who was hit by a pitch earlier in the inning—scored from second with the Red and Blue's third run.
 
That would be more than enough for starter Julia Longo. The junior hurler scattered just three hits—one each in the first, third and fourth—and never allowed a base runner past second in gaining her first collegiate shutout.
 
Nedley ended the game with two hits, a run and an RBI while Waco also had two hits and an RBI. Freshmen Sammy Fenton and Katie Reagan had the Quakers' other hits in Saturday's first game.
 
Game 2 – Penn
Nedley got things started again in Game 2 as she led off with a single, stole second, and scored on Julia Schneider's double to right center.
 
La Salle was scoreless through the first nine innings of the day, but made up for it in a big way in the bottom of the third. Olivia Szewczyk was the victim in the circle as the Explorers nickeled-and-dimed their way to their first run of the day before Victoria Zatko clouted a grand slam to make it a 5-1 game. That brought Bella Fiorentino into the game to pitch, but she struggled with her control and so Abigail Abramson came in with the bases loaded and induced a grounder to first to escape further damage.
 
Penn got all of the runs back in the top off the fifth. Julia Mortimer stroked a one-out double, then was brought home by a Corrie Phillips two-bagger. Laurel McKelvey then hit a two-out single which scored Phillips, making it 5-3, and at that point head coach Leslie King pinch hit Sarah Schneider for the starting catcher, Jillian Kuntze. It was a stroke of genius: Schneider went yard to left center, tying the game at 5-5. The Quakers then got runners on first and second, but ran out of the inning when Brianna Brown was thrown out at the plate trying to score from second on Julia Schneider's single to left.
 
Penn took the lead for good in the sixth. After Sammy Fenton led off with a single, Alyssa Pope hammered a two-out double to left which allowed Fenton to score all the way from first. Pope advanced to third when the Explorers tried to get Fenton at the plate, then she scored on a McKelvey double.
 
In the seventh, Nedley punctuated a fantastic day at the plate with a solo home run. She had two more hits in the second game, giving her four for the day. Overall, the Quakers had 15 hits in Game 2, four of them coming from Julia Schneider and three from McKelvey.
 
Abramson, meanwhile, allowed a La Salle base runner in each of the final three innings but none of them scored as the senior picked up her second win of the season.
 
Next Up
Penn is back at home on Wednesday, hosting Saint Joseph's for a doubleheader that is scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m.