ERIE — It’s hard to be much better than Pitt-Bradford’s Sydney Mosby was Friday in the First Round of the AMCC Tournament.
To put it simply, the senior from Sagamore Hills, Ohio was dominant, tossing a pair of complete game shutouts, 3-0 over D’Youville and 1-0 over top-seed Penn State Behrend.
As a result, the Panthers will play No. 2 seed Penn State Altoona in the winner’s bracket at 1p.m. today.
Should they win that game, they would automatically advance to Sunday’s championship round. If they lose, they will play a second game to determine their fate.
But the story for the Panthers was Friday and it was all about Mosby.
In the win over D’Youville, she struck out eight, allowed five hits and didn’t issue a walk.
Pitt-Bradford did all of its offensive damage in the first two innings to aid her.
Amber Fox led off the first inning with a triple and scored on a SAC Fly from Bri Stenta.
The Panthers tacked on two more runs in the second inning with some two-out lightning.
After two outs, Emily Fair singled and Fox had an infield single, which resulted in an two-run error.
That was all Mosby needed, as she allowed just one runner to reach third base.
In game two, Pitt-Bradford faced No. 1 seed Penn State Behrend. Mosby was in the
circle again for the Panthers and worked another complete-game shutout. She gave up just three hits and struck out six at the plate.
At the dish, Fox had another 2-for-3 performance to lead the Panthers and scored the only run of the contest.
This game had the makings of an old fashioned pitcher’s duel for the duration of the contest. Mosby and Penn State Behrend’s Kelsey Fuller went at it all game with Mosby having enough juice in the end to earn the win, her second of the day.
The two squads entered the third inning scoreless when Ang Comilla stepped to the plate with the bases juiced. Comilla hit a grounder to second base that scored Fox and gave the Panthers the only run needed behind Mosby’s strong arm.
“Great wins today and just what we hoped for,” said head coach Tina Phillips. “Syd threw two great games and our defense played solid. We got leads early and it really helped.”
