This past Thursday, the Waynesburg University softball team hosted Penn State Altoona for its last non-conference doubleheader of the season, splitting the series one game a piece. 

Waynesburg won game one 5-4 in walk off fashion after a lot of back and forth scoring. 

The Yellow Jackets kicked off the scoring in the bottom of the first inning when senior catcher Braylee Corbin had an RBI single to right field, and brought home sophomore Meysa Heitmann from second base. 

The following inning the Nittany Lions respond by tallying a run of their own in the top of the second. 

The game remained tied until the bottom of the third inning when sophomore Tori Foust hit her first home run of the year and brought home Heitmann who was on base as well to give Waynesburg a 3-1 lead. 

The Nittany Lions again retaliated in the ensuing inning scoring two runs and resting the game at 3-3 through four innings. 

The stalemate carried into the sixth inning when Penn State Behrend broke the tie and took their first lead of the game. From there though, Waynesburg responded again with Heitmann having an RBI double bringing home pinch hitter Madie Cicero. Two batters later, freshman Lorryn Sepe was able to bring home the game winning run and help carry Waynesburg to a 5-4 win in game one. 

Sepe believed the mindset was simple when stepping up to the plate. 

“Honestly, I was just thinking I need to do a job. Get a hit and not go for something big because this run has to score,” Sepe said. “The energy and excitement was amazing and so was the feeling of knowing I did my job.”

Some other highlights from game one was Heitmann who went a perfect 4 for 4 in game one with four hits, three runs and an RBI to her name. She said that when at the plate she had a plan.

“My focus at the plate was to try not to do too much with the pitches I was being thrown. If she was throwing me outside, them I’m gonna hit it to right field, inside if left field,” Heitmann said. “Just putting a good swing on it, hit it hard and let the rest just fall into place.”

Game two unfortunately did not go the same way for the Yellow Jackets. 

The Nittany Lions kicked off the game by scoring three runs in the top of the first inning. Waynesburg over the next three innings scored four runs taking the lead after four innings with a score of 4-3. 

Penn State Behrend took the lead in the top of the fifth inning and never looked back, scoring six unanswered runs in the process. 

Waynesburg lost game two with a final score of 10-4. 

Despite the loss in game two, Heitmann was able to achieve a personal milestone and collect her 100th career hit. She already has the most hits in an individual season with 55, and still more games to play. 

Heitmann credited a lot to the program and head coach Chris Brunson.

“Waynesburg is an amazing opportunity to grow yourself as a player,” Heitmann said. “Coach Brunson has been very helpful in encouraging me to make adjustments and reeling me back in when he sees the system falling apart.” 

Heitmann also said that the challenges that she has been brought up have helped her grow as an athlete as well. 

“I am grateful for a program that challenges me to be my best, for teammates that always have my back and make it possible to reach such milestones such as getting 100 hits,” Heitmann said. “This milestone is also a testament to the hard work and resilience that has gone into this year and the pursuit of always improving.”

Junior transfer and starting shortstop Jamie Kelly said the team in both games was able to continue to communicate effectively. 

“Something we have been doing well and that continued yesterday was communicating batter to batter what we see from prior at bats,” Kelly said. “We tend to see a pattern in the pitching and communicating to each other before we go to the plate helps the next batter.”

The Yellow Jackets now sit with a 26-12 overall record this season and a 13-7 record in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference. 

The Yellow Jackets final double header before the PAC Tournament will be against Westminster College. The Titans currently hold the number one seed for the tournament for the first time since 2023 when it was Westminster and Waynesburg in the PAC Championship game. 

Kelly said the plan is simple on how the team prepares for their final regular season double header. 

“For this final game, we’re going in knowing that anyone in this PAC is beatable,” Kelly said. “We just have to have that mindset going into the games knowing anyone can win at any time.”

The double header against Westminster is scheduled for Saturday April 25 in New Wilmington, PA. Game one has a first pitch time set for 1:00 p.m.