FORT MYERS, FL – The Pitt-Bradford softball team came away with a walk-off victory in its season opener Sunday, with Leann Bell's (Lance/West Branch) RBI base hit lifting them to a 10-9 victory over Drew University.
Pitt-Bradford (1-1, 0-0) had the bats working as a team as it put up 15 hits in the game.
Leading the offense for the Panthers was junior Megan Hillard (Bradford/Bradford) who went a perfect 3 for 3 on the day. The supporting cast for the Panthers was senior Bri Stenta (Ridgway/Ridgway) who went 3 for 6 and Bell also going 3 for 6.
Drew (0-2, 0-0) was led by Laura D'Ornellas who went 4-6 in the loss for Drew.
Pitt-Bradford struck first in the bottom of the first after Stenta drove in Amber Fox (Warren/Youngsville) on a ground ball to the shortstop.
Drew battled back and took the lead from the Panthers in the top of the third by putting together a string of hits, taking a 2-1 lead.
Neither team could hold on to the lead as the game had six lead changes throughout the course of 10 innings.
Pitt-Bradford went into the seventh inning down by two runs and rallied back to tie the game after RBIs from Stenta and senior Courtney Schuler (Smethport/Smethport) to even the game back up at 5-5.
The Panthers were faced with a two run deficit going into the bottom of the tenth inning when the Panthers strung together a series of hits to drive in three runners as Pitt-Bradford won its first game of the year in walk-off fashion, 10-9.
Game two of Pitt-Bradford's double header was against number 15th ranked, Montclair University.
The bats did not come alive like they did in the first game as the Panthers only came away with four hits against Montclair's 10.
Pitt-Bradford surrendered five runs in the second inning from a combination of good hitting and miscues on defense that proved to be costly.
Montclair added to its lead with three more in the fourth after a Powers homerun.
"Great way to open up out season! I can't say how proud I am of the way our team kept battling all game," said Pitt-Bradford coach Tina Phillips.
Phillips went on to say, "The second game was a bit of a mismatch. To beat a team like Montclair we needed to take advantage of the few opportunities we had. Cassidy pitched a better game than the box score showed. Great showing for a freshman against the 15th ranked team in the country."
The Panthers will continue their spring trip against New Jersey City at 1:00 p.m. Monday.
