3/2/25
 
NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, SC – A dominant performance from Brianna Dinice got the Falcons off to a fast start and helped Lackawanna College earn a split in their season-opening doubleheader at the Fastpitch Dreams Spring Classic in South Carolina on Sunday afternoon. Lackawanna beat Fayetteville Tech CC 7-1 in game one, before falling to Danville Area CC, 10-6, in game two.
 
Dinice (Terryville, CT) got the ball to start 2025 for the Falcons, and she was not to be messed with in the circle, going the distance and giving up just one run, unearned, on four hits, while striking out five for the complete game victory.
 
The Falcons (1-1) helped make that stand up with one run in each of the first three innings, then four more in the fourth inning to blow things open. Emmalee Mowery (Mechanicsburg, PA) scored a pair of runs and was 1-for-3, while Mia Scalese (Moscow, PA) went 1-for-4 for two runs scored and an RBI. Gracie Sokol (Belle Vernon, PA) had a pair of runs driven in and was 1-for-1 on the day.
 
After Dinice swept past the Trojans (2-10) for three straight outs to start the season, Mowery reached in the bottom half when she got hit by a pitch. A passed ball put her on second, and a ground out sent her to third. With one out, Scalese delivered in her first collegiate at-bat, singling down the third base line to score Mowery and make it 1-0, Falcons.
 
In the second, the leadoff batter reached again, this time when Kizbelth Ortiz (New Britain, CT) led off with a single to center. Ortiz got to third, and then home, on a pair of passed balls, to put Lackawanna up 2-0. The Falcons had a chance to get more, but a lined double play to center ended the inning early.
 
With runners on the corners and two out in the third, Paige Pieper (Middleton, ID) singled up the middle to score a run and push the Lackawanna lead out to 3-0 after three innings.
 
Fayetteville had its first real threat in the top of the fourth, when a walk and back-to-back passed balls put a runner on third with two away. Dinice snapped back, however, getting a fly out to center to end the threat, and setting the Falcons up for their big bottom half of the fourth.
 
A two-out single from Mowery got the Falcons going, and Jillian Heimberger (Unionville, PA) got her team going with a double to left field, scoring Mowery to make it 4-0, Lackawanna. Scalese reached on an error, which let Heimberger come around to score. Later, with runners on second and third and still two outs, Sokol came up with a single to second, scoring a pair of runs to push Lackawanna's lead out to 7-0 after four innings.
 
A double ended Dinice's no-hit bid in the top of the fifth, but she danced around that with a double-play and a ground out to get out of any trouble. Fayetteville finally got on the board in the sixth, getting a runner aboard with an error on the infield, and then putting back-to-back singles together to score the first run for the Trojans. Dinice threw a wild pitch to put runners on second and third with nobody out, then settled in and got back-to-back strikeouts, followed by a line out, to end the threat. She'd pitch around a single in the seventh to complete the victory in game one.
 
Game two was plagued by errors for the Falcons, as Danville Area scored nine runs through four innings. Lackawanna rallied with five runs in the fifth to get within a shout, but Danville shut the Falcons down over the final two innings to come away with the victory at 10-6.
 
Heimberger was 2-for-3 with a run scored and a pair of RBI, while Lindsey Tasker (Clarks Summit, PA) went 2-for-3 with a pair of runs scored. Laniah Tasker (Chambersburg, PA) went 1-for-4 with a run scored. Scalese was saddled with the loss, giving up nine runs, six earned, on nine hits in four innings of action. Heimberger pitched three innings of relief, giving up just a run, unearned, on two hits and striking out a pair.
 
The Jaguars (5-2) jumped on starting pitcher Scalese in the top of the second inning. A one-out double, followed by a walk and a single, got the bases loaded. A fielder's choice forced an out at second, but scored a run to make it 1-0, Danville Area. A two-out hot-shot double deflected off the glove of Laniah Tasker (Chambersburg, PA) and skittered down the line, allowing two runs to come home to make it 3-0, Jaguars. They loaded the bases again, but Scalese finally got out of trouble with a soft fly out to third.
 
Danville came out for more in the top of the third inning, and the Falcons didn't help themselves in the inning. An error led the inning off, and back-to-back one-out singles scored that runner to make it 4-0. A two-run double blew things wide open, pushing the Danville lead to 6-0. Scalese induced a fly out to put two away, but an RBI-single to left and an error on the infield scored a pair of runs that put Danville up 8-0 after 2.5 innings.
 
Heimberger got the Falcons on the board with a two-out single to score a runner in the bottom of the third, but Danville answered in the top of the fourth, thanks to a two-out error at short by the Falcons, making it a 9-1 deficit for Lackawanna College.
 
In the bottom of the fifth, Lackawanna finally started to make some inroads on their deficit. Lindsey Tasker (Clarks Summit, PA) led the inning off with a single on the infield. Mekenzie Dineen (Wilmington, DE) reached with a single, then an error let Mowery get on and pushed Tasker across to make it 9-2. Heimberger singled to score another run, and a Scalese ground out scored another, making it 9-4. Laniah Tasker singled to put runners on the corners, still with one out, and Sokol reached when the pitcher threw home and was late to get Heimberger, making it 9-5. The Falcons scored when Pieper grounded out to short, cutting the Falcons' deficit to 9-6. The inning continued when Kaislyn Currie (Gibbons, AB) singled to second, but the inning finally ended with a ground out.
 
Now trailing by three, and with Heimberger pitching, the Falcons danced out of trouble in the sixth. With runners on first and second and nobody out, Heimberger got a strikeout to put one away. A sac bunt put those runners in scoring position, and Heimberger got out of trouble with a grounder to second to end the threat and get the Falcons into the dugout for the bottom frame.
 
Heimberger reached on a two-out walk in the bottom of the sixth, but Danville shut any hope of a rally down with a fly out to center to strand the runner. The Jaguars added an insurance run in the top of the seventh, thanks to a one-out single, an error in the outfield, and then a sac fly to left field. Danville held a 10-6 lead heading into the bottom frame, and the Jaguars shut the Falcons down, retiring Lackawanna in order to secure the win.
 
Lackawanna College is back to work on Monday, March 3^rd, with another pair of contests at the Fastpitch Dreams Spring Classic. At 9:00am ET, the Falcons will play Schoolcraft College. Then, at 11:00am ET, they'll take on Olney Central College.