Softball Wins Twice; Dohrmann Get 536th Win

(Game 1) / (Game 2)

Fred Dohrmann tied the all-time Widener wins record for any coach in any one sport with his 536th triumph in a doubleheader sweep of Alvernia, 7-0 and 8-7, on Tuesday night in Chester, PA.

Dohrmann tied C. Alan Rowe, who notched 536 wins as men's basketball coach from 1965-98. Wednesday at Neumann, Dohrmann will coach his 999th and 1,000th games of his 33-year career for the Pride.

Widener (19-7, 9-5 CC) honored their coach by taking two games over Alvernia in dramatic fashion. After rain delays and occasional strikes of lightning, the Pride stand in sole possession of third place in the Commonwealth Conference. Alvernia (15-11, 8-6) falls to fourth in the conference with one doubleheader remaining in the regular season.

Freshman pitcher Alexis Schengrund (Hillsborough, NJ) went five scoreless innings to begin the day for the Pride. Schengrund allowed only two hits and struck out seven batters for her 10th victory of the year. She moved her strikeout total this season to 85, which now is the sixth-best single-season mark in school history.

In relief, freshman Devin Coyne (Chesapeake, VA) continued the shutout allowing two hits in two innings of work.

Offensively, Widener got off to a quick start as the second batter, sophomore Heather Forward (Philadelphia, PA) hit a home run to left field. Three batters latter, sophomore Taylor Church (Glen Mills, PA) with teammates on second and third, hit a line drive up that middle that scored two runs and gave the Pride a 3-0 first inning lead.

In the third inning, sophomore Alie Alkins (Aston, PA) hit her team-leading third home run of the season to put the Pride up by four runs. Alkins finished 2-of-3 in the game with two runs scored and an RBI.

In the fourth inning, Widener added two more runs when Church scored on an error followed by freshman Angela Hood (Mullica Twp., NJ) hitting a sacrifice fly to bring home freshman Liz Antonucci (Nesconset, NY) from third.

The Pride added one more for good measure in the sixth, when Forward singled to drive home Coyne from second to clinch the game, 7-0.

In the second game, Alkins doubled to drive home one run in the first inning. The Pride then returned to add seven runs in the second inning, highlighted by a two RBI from Hood and a two-run homer from Alkins, her second of the day.

Freshman pitcher Ally Horvath (Chalfont, PA) improved to 5-0 on the year after pitching four innings, with four strikeouts and surrendering only two earned runs.

The Crusaders did not retreat, and over the next three innings managed three home runs, one from Amanda Turner and two from Felicia McKenna, to pull with three runs of the Pride. In the top of the seventh inning, Alvernia's Amanda Galanti doubled to drive home two runs and pull within one score of tying the game.

One hour later, after rain and thunder delays, Horvath came back into the game to make the last two outs and secure the second Pride victory of the day.

"I am truly honored to join the company of C.Alan Rowe, a man I have looked up to since we met in 1981," Dohrmann said. "Tonight is a nice milestone for all of the talented softball players that have passed through our dugout. We played very well tonight."

Widener returns to action Wednesday at Neumann in non-conference action beginning at 3:30 pm.

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