PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Purchase College softball team dropped both ends of its Skyline Conference opener to Old Westbury Saturday afternoon. The visiting Panthers took the first game, 12-2 in five innings, and later completed the sweep with a 16-4 decision. 

The loss dropped Purchase to 1-8 overall and 0-2 in the Skyline. Old Westbury improved to 6-8 overall, while remaining undefeated in the league at 4-0.

Game One: Old Westbury 12, Purchase 2 (5 INN)
Early errors from the Purchase defense loomed large in Saturday's opener.

In the top of the first, leadoff hitter Natalie Intrieri reached on an error and advanced to second on a Shannon Myles single up the middle. Both players came around to score (unearned) on the second PC error of the inning.
A wild pitch, two walks and another error followed, leaving Purchase in a 4-0 hole heading into the bottom half of the inning.

Old Westbury's defense held the hosts scoreless over the first three innings, while the offense tacked on another five runs to take a 9-0 lead in the fourth.

Purchase finally broke through in the bottom of the fourth with two runs but Old Westbury fired back with three more in the fifth.

Old Westbury starting pitcher Julia Pastrana held the Panthers scoreless in the bottom of the fifth to secure 12-2 victory. For the game, Pastrana (3-6) allowed two runs on eight hits without a walk, while striking out five of the 22 batters faced.
Intrieri paced the visitors in a 3-for-4 performance, including a double, two RBI and a pair of runs scored.

For Purchase, Melanie Pawlak (JR/Buffalo, NY) and Tara Sasso (SR/North Rockland, NY) combined for the 2-RBI fourth inning. Pawlak (1-for-1) came off the bench and smashed a double to left field, scoring Jade D'Errico (JR/Wantagh, NY). Sasso (1-for-2) brought Pawlak around to score with a single to left field.

Sasso (1-7) also pitched a complete game for Purchase. The senior tossed 133 pitches in the opener with seven walks and one strikeout.

Game Two: Old Westbury 16, Purchase 4
Old Westbury opened the scoring on a wild pitch in the top of the first inning and picked up an unearned run in the second to take an early 2-0 lead.

Brianna Palermo (SR/Hyde Park, NY) led off the bottom of the frame with a single to right field. Two quick outs occurred in the next play—one which resulted in the game going under protest—snapping Purchase's momentum as the third out followed with the next at-bat.

The hosts got on the board, however, in the bottom of the second frame.

Rebecca Bronzi (SO/Lagrangeville, NY) led off with a single to left field, advanced to second on a wild pitch and moved to third on an Alexandria Perez (Bronx, NY) flyout to left field. D'Errico pushed Bronzi across home plate to score (2-1) with a groundout to the shortstop.

Purchase recorded another run in the fifth and two more in the sixth thanks to the combined hitting efforts from Pawlak, Palermo, Malena Santia (FR/Rye, NY), D'Errico, Julia Marsala (JR/Shoreham, NY) and Amber Nero (FR/New Rochelle, NY), respectively.

Old Westbury took its 9-4 lead and stretched it to 16-4 with seven runs in the seventh inning. The scoring rally put the game out of reach for Purchase and a scoreless bottom half of the frame secured the 16-4 win for the visitors.

Starting in the circle for Old Westbury, Gianna DiLillo (3-1) tossed 5.2 innings of 10-hit, 4-run and 8-strikout softball.

For Purchase, Sasso (1-8) returned to the circle to start game two and tossed a notable 156 pitches across 4.1 innings. She recorded one strikeout with two walks and gave up five earned runs (7 total) before Palermo came in for relief, pitching the final 2.2 innings. Palermo gave up seven earned runs (9 total) on five hits and seven walks with one strikeout.
 
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