CRESSON, Pa. - La Roche softball picked up its first win in AMCC play, splitting a doubleheader with Mt. Aloysius on Tuesday.

GAME ONE: LRU 7 Mt. Aloysius 4

In the third inning, the breakthrough finally came. Brooke Murgenovich sparked it, reaching base and then using her speed to create pressure. When Maura Wade delivered a clutch RBI single, La Roche struck first. It wasn't a big inning, but it mattered—it set the tone and gave them a 1–0 edge.

Momentum, however, didn't stay put for long. In the fourth, Mt. Aloysius answered back with two runs, capitalizing on timely hitting to take a 2–1 lead. For a moment, La Roche felt the shift. The dugout tightened. The game had turned into a fight.

The fifth inning defined everything.

Iyarah Hicks and Sydney Leahy helped ignite the rally, setting the table for the top of the order. Then Brooke Murgenovich delivered again, tying the game with an RBI single. What followed was the swing that changed the entire game—Finley Hohn stepped in and crushed a bases-clearing double, driving in three runs. Just like that, La Roche flipped the game from trailing to commanding, jumping ahead 5–2.

Even when Mt. Aloysius answered with two runs of their own in the bottom half, La Roche didn't panic. They had seized control, and more importantly, they believed they could finish it.

From there, the pitching and defense held firm. Maura Wade entered in relief and shut things down, calmly navigating the final three innings to secure the save. The defense backed her up, limiting further damage despite pressure from a team that had already tallied 10 hits.

In the seventh, La Roche added insurance—the kind of finishing touch good teams deliver. Maura Wade doubled in a run, and Finley Hohn struck again with an RBI single, her fourth run driven in of the game. It was a statement: this game belonged to La Roche.

When the final out was recorded, the scoreboard read 7–4.

La Roche saw it as a complete team win—11 hits, timely execution, and resilience when momentum slipped away. Finley Hohn's four RBIs powered the offense, Brooke Murgenovich set the tone at the top, and the combination of Taylor Young and Maura Wade locked it down in the circle.

GAME TWO: Mt. Aloysius 10 LRU 7

Mt. Aloysius struck first in the opening inning, but it was the second inning that created the real challenge. A combination of timely hitting and defensive miscues led to a six-run surge. Balls found gaps, pressure mounted, and errors extended innings. By the time the dust settled, La Roche trailed 7–0, with several of those runs unearned. It wasn't a lack of effort—it was a snowball effect that became difficult to stop.

But La Roche didn't fold.

In the third inning, the response came—and it came fast.

Brooke Murgenovich set things in motion, and Maura Wade delivered with an RBI double to get La Roche on the board. That moment sparked belief in the dugout. Finley Hohn followed with an RBI single, then Taylor Young added another to keep the line moving. Suddenly, the pressure flipped. When Ashlee Bair came through with a two-run single, La Roche had turned a blowout into a game, cutting the deficit to 7–5 in one explosive inning.

The energy had completely shifted.

In the fourth, La Roche kept chipping away. Maura Wade came around to score on a wild pitch, tightening the game to one run. Then in the fifth, Ashlee Bair delivered again—this time with an RBI double—tying the game at 7–7. From a seven-run hole to even, La Roche had done the hard part.

They had fought all the way back.

But baseball doesn't always reward momentum.

Mt. Aloysius answered in the bottom of the fifth with a go-ahead run, and despite La Roche's efforts to regain control, defensive struggles resurfaced in the sixth. Two more runs crossed—both unearned—stretching the lead to 10–7. In a game where La Roche outhit mistakes but couldn't escape them, those extra chances proved costly.

Offensively, La Roche did its job. The team produced 11 hits, with Maura Wade leading the way with three, while Ashlee Bair drove in three runs and sparked the comeback. Contributions came throughout the lineup, and the fight was undeniable.