MILLERSVILLE, Pa. - The last two weeks have been a challenge for the Millersville University softball team, but it returned to the field for the first time in 13 days Saturday and swept PSAC East rival East Stroudsburg, first by a score of 5-3 on Gabi Turner's walk-off home run, and then by a 3-1 score behind Maddie Guinane's complete-game pitching performance. 

Millersville played short-handed Friday as it continued to emerge from Covid-19 issues that kept the team out of action for two weeks. It showed no signs of a lay-off, though, as the Marauders won their fifth and sixth-straight games, improving to 8-2 overall and 4-2 in the PSAC East. It matches Millersville's best start since 2013. East Stroudsburg (10-6, 5-4 PSAC East) prior to Friday had won five of its previous six. 

GAME ONE (MILLERSVILLE 5, EAST STROUDSBURG 3)
• Turner turned a game to forget into an unforgettable one with one swing of the bat in the bottom of the seventh. Turner had struck out in her first three at bats, but redemption came with her three-run home run as Millersville was down to its final out. Morgan Crutcher, who tossed a complete game in the circle and reached base three times at the plate, led off the inning with a single. After two strikeouts, Rebecca Blatt hit a sharp grounder up the middle. East Stroudsburg's shortstop managed to glove it, but her toss to second for the force out, which would have ended the game, was mishandled. That was the opening Millersville needed. On a 2-2 count, Turner hit a high drive over the left field fence for her third homer of the year.
• All of Millersville's runs came on homers. Devan Masciulli blasted a solo shot on the first pitch of the bottom of the first, and Faith Willenbrock hit a solo home run in the fourth to cut Millersville's deficit down to one. 
• Crutcher (4-1) pitched a career-high seven innings and gave up two earned runs, three total, on eight hits and two walks. 
 
GAME TWO (MILLERSVILLE 3, EAST STROUDSBURG 1)
• Guinane (2-0) carried a shutout through 6 2/3 innings and finished her second consecutive complete game with four hits allowed, two walks and three strikeouts. Her defense played a spotless game as well. In the third, Masciulli charged hard from her center field position on a sinking liner and dove headfirst for a brilliant catch. The first batter of the fifth inning hit a rocket to the shortstop side of third base. Marli Schreiner, making her first career start at the position, snared the ball out of the air for an out. Two batters later, Hunter Little made a diving catch on a shallow fly to left, ending the inning. 
• All three of Millersville's runs came in the bottom of the fourth. Blatt led off with an opposite-field home run. Turner, Willenbrock and Little singled to load the bases. Relief pitcher Leigh Ann Jenkins got Alyssa Turner to pop up to second base for an infield fly rule, but the second baseman misplayed the ball, and using heads-up base running, Turner scored from third. Willenbrock came home on Schreiner's RBI single to center.

REACTION FROM COACH JEN PROBST
• On the feeling after Turner's walk-off home run: "The thing about this team is you can never count us out even when we're down to our last strike. Gabi had a tough time game one at the plate with pitch selection, yet She, this team, and the coaching staff all believed she could get it done. It's because of her positivity and ability to handle failure that can make her successful no matter how her day's been going. I'm really proud of how she stepped up in that moment."
• On the team's defense with players playing out of position: "Our team can play with confidence no matter where they are put because there's no judgement by their teammates or coaching staff. It allows them to play without fear of failure. The dives, the throws on the run, the double plays were so much fun to watch. We may have only had 11, but with the energy, you would have thought there were twice as many in the dugout."
• On Guinane's recent performances: "Maddie's mental game is at an all-time career-high. Also, I can call the same pitch multiple times in a row, and she will move it around and not hit the same spot. This makes it really tough for hitters to just sit on certain spins or small parts of the zone."

NOTES
• Willenbrock has recorded at least one hit in nine of the team's 10 games. Her game one home run was her PSAC-leading eighth of the season. 
• Guinane has allowed just one run and six hits over her last two starts spanning 14 innings. 
• Crutcher batted for the first time in her collegiate career and recorded two singles, was hit by a pitch, and scored a run.

UP NEXT
• Millersville travels to East Stroudsburg Saturday for a 1 p.m. start to the doubleheader.