STATE COLLEGE, PA (March 29, 2015)—The Sacred Heart softball team picked up its first Northeast Conference win of the season as the split the conference-opening doubleheader against Saint Francis U Sunday afternoon. After falling 7-1 in the first game, the Pioneers squeezed out a 7-6 win with Victoria D'Addario's (Lincoln Park, N.J.) game-winning double in the tenth inning.

Kate Nadler (Southbury, Conn.) scored the only SHU run of the first game and went 2-for-3 at the plate. With two down and the Pioneers trailing 1-0 in the top of the third inning, Nadler doubled to left center.  Next batter, rookie Lauren Delgadillo (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.) worked the other side of center field for a double picking up the RBI as Nadler crossed the plate.

SHU starter Jamie Carlson (Corona, Calif.) fell to 3-4 on the season getting the loss after giving up three runs on four hits after just two innings of work. The sophomore struck out three before Adrianna Mallory (Pine Bush, N.Y.) came in to pitch four innings of relief giving up four more runs to the Red Flash on five hits striking out six batters.

With the international tiebreaker rule in effect in the top of the tenth inning Justine Sibthorp (Santa Clarita, Calif.) advanced to third on a passed ball before D'Addario ripped a double down the left field line scoring Sibthorp for the Pioneers' first conference win of the season.

SFU got on the board first getting two runs off starter Kacie Wentworth (Canton, N.Y.) in the bottom of the first inning, but the Pioneers took their first lead of the day, 3-2, in the bottom of the third on Hannah Ford's (New Fairfield, Conn.) two-RBI single. Sibthorp tacked on another run for SHU sending a long ball over the left field fence for a solo homer in the top of the fifth.

The Red Flash answered with four runs in the bottom of the inning for a 6-4 lead. Courtney Machamer (Williamstown, Pa.) minimized the deficit to just one run sending Ford across the plate with a double to centerfield.

Carlson came in to relive Wentworth in the bottom of the sixth and shut down the Red Flash for five innings. Carlson gave up just three hits and struck out six of the 19 batters she faced allowing the Pioneer offense to make a comeback giving her her fourth win of the season.

Sacred Heart continues NEC play tomorrow against Robert Morris. The doubleheader is set to begin at 1:00 p.m.