Wednesday afternoon on April 2, was an up and down day for the Waynesburg University Yellow Jackets softball team as they split a Presidents’ Athletic Conference doubleheader against the Geneva College Golden Tornadoes. 

The Yellow Jackets entered the doubleheader looking to get back in the win column after being swept by the conference leading Grove City College Wolverines. 

Sydney Wilson got the start for the Yellow Jackets in game one, while Autumn Stemple took the mound in game two. 

The Golden Tornadoes struck first in the top of the first, as Justine Robbins lined a two-run double to make it 2-0. The Yellow Jackets would get a run back in the bottom half as left fielder Meysa Heitmann would reach on a fielding error, scoring Camdyn Kowalczyk making it 2-1 in favor of Geneva.

Waynesburg would find their offensive success in the third and sixth innings, adding three runs in both to gain the advantage. Heitmann would once come through and start the scoring as she would bring in Grace Higgins with an RBI single later scoring on a Kaitlyn Jagielski double to give the Yellow Jackets the lead, 3-2. 

Right Fielder Dilyn Roberts would add one more run in the inning with an RBI single, making it 4-2 in favor of the Yellow Jackets. 

In the bottom of the sixth, pinch hitter Bella DeMark would join the party with an RBI single of her own, scoring Brynn Charnesky and making it 5-2. Jagielski would get her second RBI of the game with a single to the left side, scoring Higgins and then, Breanna Rice would plate the last run of the game with a pinch hit RBI double of her own extending the Yellow Jackets lead to 7-2 which would be the final score of game one. 

After having a little bit of a struggle in the first inning, Wilson was able to shut down the Golden Tornadoes the rest of the way, as she would finish with a complete game, striking out 10 batters without allowing a hit since the first inning. 

“The first game I think we were trying to figure out the umpire’s strike zone,” head coach Chris Brunson said. “And once we figured that out, we made the adjustment and our pitching coach talked to Sydney and she made that adjustment.”

The second game would not go the Yellow Jackets way right from the start. The Golden Tornadoes would once again score first, as shortstop Lexie Zanic would hit an RBI double to make it 1-0. 

Zanic would add to the lead in the top of the second with a two-run single, capitalizing on a mental team error extending the inning. Then, first baseman Julia Hart would follow up Zanic’s single with a two-run home run, blowing the game open early with a 5-0 lead.

Zanic would add to her great game at the plate, with another RBI single to extend Geneva’s lead to 6-0 and ending Stemple’s day on the mound. 

The Yellow Jackets would end up scoring two runs in the game, as Heitmann would hit her second RBI double of the day, while catcher Alyssa Rager would also hit an RBI double cutting the lead to 6-2. 

“In game two, the Rapp twins have good rhythm together and she had enough to throw us off,” said Jagielski. “We had some moments where we should take advantage of their weaknesses, but without any runs on the board, it put an immense amount of pressure on our pitchers.”

Stemple would take the loss, pitching three plus innings and giving up six runs on 10 hits. 

The Yellow Jackets will be on road on Saturday, April 7, against Franciscan in another conference doubleheader. First pitch scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

“We have used games like this as a confidence booster,”Jagielski said. “Each year we have played well against Franciscan, and I don’t doubt that we can bring back two wins. Our adjustments are all mental, we know what we are capable of. We just have to trust our abilities in competing.”