4/22/25
 
NEWTON, NJ – It was a total team effort with contributions up and down the lineup on Tuesday afternoon, as Lackawanna College softball suffocated Sussex County CC with a pair of region victories on the road, 8-0 and 12-2.
 
The Falcons (24-22, 9-5) were efficient, scoring a combined 20 runs on 20 hits across both games and winning both games via run-rule. Meanwhile, the pitching staff gave up a combined seven hits and struck out the opposition 14 times through the doubleheader.
 
The Falcons scored all eight of their runs in game one in the first two innings, then coasted to the five-inning victory. Jillian Heimberger (Unionville, PA) was 3-for-3 with two runs and an RBI, hitting a double, while Laniah Tasker (Chambersburg, PA) was 1-for-2 with two runs and two RBIs. Gracie Sokol (Belle Vernon, PA) had two runs, while Emmalee Mowery (Mechanicsburg, PA) also scored a pair of runs. Starter Brianna Dinice (Terryville, CT) threw three innings, striking out a pair and giving up just one hit for her sixth win of the year. Abigail Yenalevitch (Kingston, PA) threw two innings of relief, striking out three and giving up three hits.
 
In the top of the first, Mowery reached on a walk and then got to second. Heimberger also got on, and Tasker singled them home with one out to give the Falcons the early lead. Sokol doubled Tasker home, and Kizbelth Ortiz (New Britain, CT) singled with two outs to score Sokol and make it 4-0, Falcons, after just one inning.
 
The second inning went much like the first, but this time the Falcons scored all four runs with two outs. With Mowery on third after back-to-back steals and two outs, Heimberger doubled her home to make it 5-0. With the bases loaded, and still two outs, the dam broke open on a fly ball to left from Paige Pieper (Middleton, ID), as an error let all three runners score to make it 8-0, Lackawanna.
 
The best chance for Sussex (1-19, 1-15) to score came in the bottom of the fourth. The Skylanders had the bases loaded with one out, but Yenalevitch got a huge strikeout to put two away, and then a soft grounder to the catcher forced a play at the plate, where the Falcons made the force out and got out of the jam.
 
Yenalevitch pitched the fifth, allowing a leadoff single and a one-out walk, but pitching around the trouble with a pair of strikeouts and a fly out to close out the game in a run-rule win for the Falcons.
 
Lackawanna had more offense in game two, but the lead was precarious in the fifth, as Sussex closed within 5-2, before the Falcons scored seven runs in the sixth to go up ten, then forced the run-rule in the bottom frame with a 1-2-3 inning.
 
Kaislyn Currie (Gibbons, AB) and Heimberger each had two hits and two RBIs, while Lindsey Tasker (Clarks Summit, PA) was 2-for-2 with three RBIs and a triple. Currie and Mowery both scored two runs, and Mia Scalese (Moscow, PA) pitched four shut-out innings, striking out seven and giving up two hits for her seventh win of the season.
 
In the first, Currie singled home Mowery for the first run of the game, then she scored when Heimberger doubled to right to make it 2-0 after one inning.
 
Sussex got two baserunners in the second on a double and a hit batter, but three straight outs from Scalese stranded the pair and kept the Skylanders off the board. Lackawanna made them pay in the bottom half, when Tasker singled home a runner to make it 3-0, Falcons. Lackawanna loaded the bases with just one out, but two straight outs stranded the runners and kept the Falcons from blowing things open.
 
In the top of the third, Lackawanna scored two more when Tasker tripled to right field with two outs, making it 5-0, Lackawanna. Scalese pitched around a walk and a double with a double play and a strike out in the bottom of the third.
 
Still ahead 5-0, the Falcons brought on Heimberger to pitch in the bottom of the fifth. She got the first two outs, but the Skylanders were able to break through. A walk, then a double, put two runners in scoring position, but an error on the infield, followed by a wild pitch, scored two runs to cut the Lackawanna deficit to 5-2. A fly out to center stranded a potential third run, sending the game to the top of the sixth.
 
An error led off the sixth, and Currie followed up with a single to score the run and make it 6-2, Falcons. Heimberger singled to right, then got all the way home because of an error in right, scoring a pair to make it 8-2, Lackawanna. Pieper singled, then scored on a double from Scalese to make it 9-2, Falcons. Dinice eventually scored her with a single to right with two outs to push the Falcons up over ten runs, then Isabella Rodriguez (Lancaster, PA) and Mowery put up back-to-back RBI singles to push the lead to 12-2, before Sussex finally retired the Falcons.
 
Lackawanna retired Sussex in order in the bottom half of the sixth to close out the doubleheader sweep and secure their ninth region win of the season.
 
The Falcons are now 9-5 in Region XIX Division II play, and they are a step closer to securing themselves into the third-place spot for the Region XIX DII tournament. Lackawanna will play the team in fourth place, Salem CC, on Thursday, April 24^th, in a doubleheader at home. First pitch is set for 3:30pm ET at the Scranton HS softball field.