FT. MYERS, Fla. - For the second day in a row, the Plymouth State University softball team swept a pair of games in the annual Gene Cusic Collegiate Classic on Tuesday evening.  The Panthers went nine innings before capturing a 1-0 victory over Salve Regina University, and came back with a 5-4 triumph over Edgewood College of Wisconsin in the nightcap.

            The first game was a pitchers' duel between PSU sophomore Kat Roland (Norton, Mass.) and Salve sophomore Sarah Jakiela (Meriden, Conn.), who each held the other team scoreless through eight innings.  With the tiebreaker system in place, sophomore Kay Labrie (Somersworth, N.H.) started the ninth inning on second base for PSU.  She advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by junior Heather Bartolo (Derry, N.H.) and scored on a ground out to second by freshman Melissa Caiazzo (Portland, Maine).

            Roland held the Seahawks off the board in the bottom of the ninth inning to record the complete-game victory.  She allowed seven hits and a walk in nine innings, striking out eight.  PSU managed only two hits off Jakiela, a pair of second-inning singles by freshmen Andrea Pydynkowski (Danvers, Mass.) and Laura Kaplan (Franklin, N.H.)

            PSU took a 3-0 lead after two innings of the nightcap before Edgewood rallied with four runs in the top of the fifth to take a 4-3 lead.  The Panthers answered with the tying and eventual winning runs in the bottom of the sixth. Caiazzo hit a hard grounder to third, on which the third baseman made an excellent stop, but threw the ball away, allowing sophomore Jenna George (Cumberland, R.I.) and Bartolo to come around and score.

            Junior Courtney MacFarland (Hampstead, N.H.) earned the complete-game win for PSU, striking out seven.  Edgewood had a runner reach second base in the seventh inning, but George threw out the potential tying run at home plate to end the game.

            PSU, which has won four straight to improve to 4-2 on the trip, gets back into action Thursday morning with a pair of single games against Rutgers University-Newark (9:00 a.m.) and SUNY Brockport (11:00 a.m.)

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