BALTIMORE, Md. (May 1, 2019)-The 2019 softball season came to an end for Morgan State, as well as the collegiate careers of nine Lady Bears on Wednesday afternoon with a non-conference doubleheader against visiting Rider. Morgan State would go on to sweep the Broncs, coming from behind for a 3-2 win in the series opener, before earning a 4-2 victory in the finale at Lois T. Murray Field.
 
Morgan State (22-24) closed out the season on a season-high six-game winning streak and won 14 of its last 17 games. Rider (7-43) has now lost its last 10 contests.
 
The Broncs took a 1-0 lead in the first game when Kelsey Marigliano scored on a wild pitch in the first inning. The score remained that way until the sixth inning when Rider added to its lead when Rachael Zeides scored when Kiera Swank flied out to center field to make it a 2-0 lead.
 
The Lady Bears' offense would get going in the bottom half of the sixth with the help of an error on the Rider defense. Gabriella Gorosave led off the inning with a single to right field and Damali Young followed with a single up the middle. Two batters later Damishah Charles reached on an error by the shortstop, which allowed Caitlyn Williams, who was pinch running for Gorosave, to score. Sarah Heagy singled to right field to drive in two runs with Young and Charles both scoring to put the hosts ahead, 3-2.
 
Young's run would be her only one of the game, giving her 47 runs scored for the season, thus tying her with former Lady Bear Tanisha Kemp (47 runs in 1997) for the school's single-season runs scored record. Young finished 2-for-3 at the plate with a run score. Heagy had a hit with 2 RBI and Charles finished with a hit, a run scored and an RBI.
 
Stephanie Rundlett (15-15) picked up her team-leading 15th win of the season. She allowed two hits on seven runs, two walks and had a strikeout in seven innings.
 
Rider's Lani Moreno led the team with two hits, while Grace Stansfield had a hit and two walks. Zeides recorded a hit and a run. Debra Jones was charged with the loss and fell to 3-11 on the season. Jones surrendered three runs on five hits, a walk and struck out two batters.
 
For Game 2, Morgan State head coach Larry Hineline started all nine of his seniors (Giselle Alvarez, Amber Arlinghaus, Mikaela Browdy, Damishah Charles, Gabriella Gorosave, Erica Hawkins, Caitlyn Williams, Damali Young and Stormy Zyzyk), as they got to hear their names called during player introductions and take the field together one final time.
 
The Broncs struck first when Stansfield reached on a throwing error and Marigliano scored to give the guests a 1-0 lead in the top half of the first inning.
 
Morgan State quickly evened the score at 1-1 when Alvarez scored in the bottom half of the first on a passed ball. Gorosave gave the Lady Bears the lead for good in the second inning, when she drove in Zyzyk and Fijalkowski with her two-run single. Alvarez singled to right field, scoring Meikel Turner to make it a 4-1 game.
The Lady Bears' lead would hold up until the seventh inning when Moreno doubled, scoring Marigliano for the game's final run.
 
Alvarez finished the game 3-for-3 with an RBI and a run in her last contest as a Lady Bear. Fellow seniors Browdy went 1-for-1 with two walks, while Gorosave had a hit and 2 RBI. Sophomore Evvi Buehlman was 2-for-3 at the plate.
 
Mikayla Barnard picked up the win and improved to 6-7 on the season. Bernard pitched six innings of relief, allowing a run on seven hits.
 
Rider's Elyse Cuttic fell to 0-16 on the season with the loss. Cuttic surrendered four runs on five hits and had one strikeout in three innings of work.

The Proposal: Morgan State assistant softball coach Myron Vanterpool capped off the afternoon by proposing to girlfriend Nastosha Johnson at home plate. The two first met on the very softball field during their undergraduate days at Morgan State when Vanterpool was a student volunteer and Johnson was a catcher on the team. She said yes!!