LEMONT FURNACE, Pa. – The Thiel College softball team split a non-conference doubleheader on the road Wednesday with the Penn State Fayette Nittany Lions.
 
The Tomcats lost the first game 7-6 before earning an 11-4 win in the second game.
 
PSU Fayette led 2-0 in Game 1 until Julianna Sloan (Kingsville, Ohio/Edgewood) hit a grand slam in the fifth inning.
 
The Nittany Lions picked up a run in the sixth, but Thiel scored two more runs in the top of the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Kylee Yothers (Indian Head, Pa./Connellsville Area) and a groundout by Riley Ladd (Mineral Ridge, Ohio/Mineral Ridge) to hold a 6-3 lead.
 
PSU Fayette scored four runs with two outs in the bottom of the seventh to steal the win.
 
Sloan recorded four RBIs and scored two runs in Game 1. Amber Wilkes (Pittsburgh, Pa./Peters Township) went 2-for-3 and scored a run.
 
Kayla Roddy (Cincinnati, Ohio/Oak Hills) allowed three earned runs on 10 hits through 6 2/3 innings.
 
The Nittany Lions took an early 2-0 lead in Game 2, but the Tomcats responded with three runs in the second inning on RBIs by Dani Ficeti (Greenville, Pa./Greenville), Lauren Bonner (Hermitage, Pa./Reynolds) and Wilkes.
 
After PSU Fayette took a 4-3 lead, Thiel exploded for eight unanswered runs in the sixth and seventh innings.
 
Sloan led off the sixth frame with a solo homer. Ficeti drove in the second run on a sacrifice fly. Kylie Heid (Monaca, Pa./Central Valley) and Roddy also hit run-scoring singles in the sixth. Wilkes hit a bases-clearing triple in the seventh inning.
 
Bonner earned the win in Game 2. She allowed two earned runs on six hits with four strikeouts.
 
Wilkes went 2-for-3 in Game 2 with four RBIs and a triple. Heid, Ficeti, Bonner and Ladd had two hits apiece. Sloan hit a pair of home runs on the day.
 
The Tomcats are scheduled to play the W&J Presidents on the road Saturday. The first game of the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) doubleheader is set to begin at 1 p.m.

*Complete, official game statistics were unavailable Wednesday.