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Penn College softball opens season in Myrtle Beach

The women’s softball season is about to begin for Pennsylvania College of Technology and baseball is underway.

SOFTBALL

A year ago, coach Jackie Klahold took a young, untested squad during her first season at Penn College and molded it into a team that “exceeded expectations,” finished 17-20 overall, 10-8 in the North Eastern Athletic Conference, and advanced to the United States Collegiate Athletic Conference Small College World Series. The nucleus of that team returns this season and Klahold expects even more.

“The young part has not changed. We are looking at a roster that (of) 16 and we’re looking at 13 freshmen and sophomores. There’s a lot of good leadership coming back, with some good competitive experience under their belt,” Klahold said. “We have more depth this year, which for a coach is a wonderful problem to have.”

The Wildcats open their season Sunday in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where they will face eight different opponents over four days.

“Even though we do have a young team, the strength of schedule in Myrtle Beach has increased from last year and I am very pleased with that. … We split (during the conference season) with teams that made the playoffs and we need to have that strong competition to see where we are as a team; what we need to refocus on, what we need to change,” Klahold said.

Leading the returning players are pitcher/outfielder Taylor Brooks, shortstop Kelsey Gantz, outfielder Taylor Krow, third baseman-catcher Elizabeth Asher, all sophomores, and junior pitcher-second baseman Amanda Kustanbauter.

Brooks and Gantz earned All-NEAC North First Team honors last year while the other three were named to the All-NEAC North Second Team. Gantz was a second team USCAA All-American and Brooks an USCAA Honorable Mention All-American.

In a recent poll of NEAC coaches, Penn College was picked to finish sixth.

BASEBALL

In its season opener at Lebanon Valley on Friday that was called after eight innings due to darkness, Penn College fell, 19-7.

The Wildcats led 1-0 after one inning before the home team scored all of its runs between the second and fifth innings. Penn College staged a late comeback with one run in the seventh and five in the eighth before play was halted. Freshman Nate Lowe finished 3 for 4 at the plate with two runs scored, freshman Ben Flicker was 2 for 3, and junior Noah Esposito had a three-run single in the eighth for Penn College.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

The Wildcats finished 9-16 overall, their most wins in a season since 2010-11, and narrowed their scoring point differential to minus-6.9 points as they averaged 77.6 points per game on offense and allowed 84.5. In NEAC play they ended with a 7-13 record and ninth overall, after being picked in a coaches’ preseason poll to finish 12th.

“We had a little bit of an up-and-down year. We had some nice winning streaks that were nice for our group,” said coach Ryan Callahan, whose teams in two seasons have gone 12-37.

Individually, freshman Ben Sosa topped the team in scoring with 378 points, 15.1 per game; senior Erik Eichinger scored 335 points (13.4 average) and senior Thomas Ross scored 250 (10.4), and closed out his career with 1,044 points.

Ross also topped the team with 179 rebounds (7.5 average), while freshman Jesse White had 173 rebounds (7.2) and Sosa 141 (5.6).

Looking ahead, the coach said, “I think the program is in a much better place than it was a year ago. A year ago at this time I only had two kids coming back and it was a scramble to get bodies to have a healthy roster, so that’s not a concern any more. We have a great core of guys to build around — six freshmen who all will be back and all have experience.”

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

“We had Alicia Ross, who was returning, and we’re very thankful for her. But that was pretty much it, so I had to do a lot of recruiting on campus with students who already were enrolled who may have had some basketball experience and we managed to formulate a team,” coach Lauren Healy said of her first season. “Luckily, some of the other teams got involved so I had quite a few soccer players who contributed a lot and ended up being starters and I had a couple of softball players who helped out. … It was pretty remarkable that we were able to get through an entire season, playing 25 games and competing as well.”

Overall, Penn College finished 3-22. It was 3-17 in conference play and finished tied for 12th. The Wildcats averaged 49.4 points per game and allowed 68.9.

Ross was the top scorer with 410 points (17.1 per game) and she closed out her career with a women’s school record 1,515. Sophomore Jane Herman was second in scoring with 274 points (11.9 average); and junior Gwendolyn Lavelle third with 230 (9.6). Ross also was the leading rebounder with 170 (7.1 average) and Herman was second in rebounds with 146 (6.3).

On Thursday, Ross was named to the NEAC Third Team, marking the second consecutive season that she received the same honor and making her the first player in program history to earn consecutive all-NEAC honors.

“Alicia was a remarkable player. … And she proved that she could do it being in one of the hardest majors on campus (nursing),” Healy said.

SCHEDULES, RECORDS and RESULTS

Wrestling

Final overall record: 1-15

Sunday, Feb. 26 – at National Collegiate Open, Dover, Delaware

Baseball

Overall record: 0-1

NEAC record: 0-0

Friday, Feb. 24 – at Lebanon Valley College, L, 19-7, 8 innings

Sunday, March 5 – vs. Penn State Mont Alto at Myrtle Beach, S.C., 8:30 p.m.

Monday, March 6 – vs. Manhattanville College at Myrtle Beach, S.C. (2), noon

Softball

Overall record: 0-0

NEAC record: 0-0

Sunday, March 5 – vs. Cedar Crest College at Myrtle Beach, S.C., 9:30 p.m.

Sunday, March 5 – vs. Eastern Mennonite University at Myrtle Beach, S.C., 11:30 a.m.

Monday, March 6 – vs. Medaille College at Myrtle Beach, S.C., 1:30 p.m.

Monday, March 6 – vs. Rhode Island College at Myrtle Beach, S.C., 3:30 p.m.

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