MYRTLE BEACH, SC – The Wilkes University softball team split a pair of games on day two of its spring break trip as the Colonels took a 10-0 shutout win over North Carolina Wesleyan in game one before falling 6-3 in game two against Kean University.
 
Wilkes moved its overall record to 3-1 on the season following the split.
 
Game one saw more strong pitching from Rhia Aurand (Avondale, PA/Avon Grove) as the senior picked up her second win of the year going all seven innings allowing just four hits on way to the shutout win.
 
At the plate Wilkes broke open a scoreless game in the third scoring one run followed by another un in the fourth before exploding for four runs in the fifth to take a 6-0 lead after five.
 
Caylee-Mae Williams (Yuba City, CA/River Valley) doubled to center field scoring Erin Cabry (York, PA/Central York) to give the Colonels a 1-0 lead in the third. Nicole Howell (Tunkhannock, PA/Tunkhannock Area) added an RBI double to center field in the fourth plating Jessie Smith (Millersville, MD/Severna Park) as Wilkes led 2-0. IN the four-run fifth, Emma Stauffer (Media, PA/Penncrest) knocked in two runs on an RBI single before Smith drilled an RBI single to left field to score another Colonel run. Aurand helped her cause at the plate with an RBI groundout to cap the scoring in the frame.
 
The Colonels finished off their scoring in the sixth and seventh scoring one run in the sixth before a wild pitch and bases-loaded walk pushed the lead to 9-0. Rachel Pritchard's (Wilmington, DE/Concord) RBI single to left field finished off the rally in the top of the seventh.
 
Five different Colonels had two hits in the game including Williams, Pritchard, Stauffer, Smith and Nicole O'Rourke (Staten Island, NY/Susan E Wagner).
 
In game two, Kean jumped out to a 3-0 lead after three innings of play thanks to a three-run third. Kean added another run in the top of the fifth before Wilkes responded with its first run in the bottom of the frame. Cabry began the inning with a double before coming around to score on a Hayden Calaman (Elizabethtown, PA/Elizabethtown Area) RBI single.
 
Kean plated two more runs in the top of the sixth to take a 6-1 lead into the final Colonel at-bats. Bella Peters (Lancaster, PA/Penn Manor) began the rally with a one-out double before coming around to score one batter later when Stauffer doubled her home. With runners on the corners two batters later, Hope Mullins (Midland, VA/Liberty) singled up the middle cutting the Kean advantage to 6-3 before a groundout to third base ended the Colonel comeback attempt.
 
Mullins topped all Colonel hitters going 3-for-4 with one RBI. Pritchard pitched six innings allowing ten hits and two earned runs. Peters pitched the final scoreless inning.
 
Wilkes is idle tomorrow before returning to play on Thursday with a doubleheader against William Peace at 1:30 p.m. and Eastern Mennonite at 5:30 p.m.