GROVE CITY, Pa. – The Thiel College softball team split its Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) opener Saturday on the road against the Grove City Wolverines. Thiel won the first game 10-2 but lost 4-2 in the second game of the doubleheader.
 
The Wolverines took an early 2-0 lead in the first game but the Tomcats evened the score in the second inning thanks to an error and an RBI-double by Miranda Reesman (Vandergrift, Pa./Leechburg).
 
The Tomcats took the lead in the fourth on RBI-singles by Alana Callahan (Austintown, Ohio/Austintown Fitch) and Alexa Fike (Export, Pa./Franklin Regional) before adding six more runs in the fifth.
 
Jessica Kelley (Sarver, Pa./Freeport) led the Tomcats at the plate with a 2-for-3 performance that included three RBIs and a home run. Reesman knocked a pair of doubles and scored three runs while Leah Woytek (Hillsville, Pa. /Mohawk) went 2-for-4 and drove in a pair of runs.
 
A.J. Corradi (Youngstown, Ohio/Austintown Fitch) and Fike also had multi-hit efforts in the first game. Kelley earned the win. She allowed two runs, neither of which was earned, on five hits.
 
The Wolverines took an early 1-0 lead in the second game, but Reesman singlehandedly tied up the score in the second with a solo home run that sailed over the center field fence.
 
Grove City took the lead back (4-1) with three runs in the third. Thiel got one of those runs back in the fifth when freshman third baseman Vanessa Falce (McKeesport, Pa./McKeesport) pushed a run across the plate on a single to left field, but Grove City held on down the stretch to force the split.
 
Kelley suffered the loss in the second game. She allowed four runs, two of which were earned, on six hits with a pair of strikeouts.
 
Woytek, Falce and Reesman each collected two hits for the Tomcats in the second game.
 
Thiel will take on the Case Western Reserve Spartans on the road Tuesday. The first game of the non-conference doubleheader is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m.