The Pitt-Johnstown Mountain Cats swept in a doubleheader PSAC West softball game against Slippery Rock University on Saturday, April 24. The two games were played at 11:00 am and 1:00 pm at the V.E. Erickson Complex, resulting in an 8-0 and 4-2 respectively.

At Saturday’s first game, junior Alyssa Hileman tossed a two-hit shutout, and Pitt-Johnstown scored seven runs in the third inning to break the one-run lead from the first inning. In game two, Pitt-Johnstown scored two runs in the first inning and two more in the sixth to complete the sweep with a 4-2 victory.

Following their double win on Saturday, the team suffered a double loss at an away game on Monday, April 26 to California University of Pennsylvania resulting in a 5-1 and 10-8.

At Monday’s first game, Cal U opened up a 4-0 lead and went on to victory with a run at the end of the sixth inning ending in a score of 5-1. In game two, The Mountain Cats scored 6 runs by the end of the first inning, but Cal U scored three runs by the end of the sixth to complete the sweep with the 10-8 win. This leaves Pitt-Johnstown at 8-24 overall and 7-19 in conference-play as of April 27.

Head Coach Niki (Cognigni) Pecora led the team for the sixth season this year. Before the start of the season, the 2021 Preseason Coaches’ Poll picked Pitt-Johnstown to finish sixth in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Western Division.

Under the new format that was implemented this PSAC softball season, the league was split into two divisions, the East and the West. As of now, the PSAC reports that Seton Hill leads the West with 19-5 in conference play and 22-8 overall.

Prior to the 2020 season cancellation due to COVID-19, Pitt-Johnstown’s record was 5-5, and in 2019, the team achieved a program-best of 19 overall victories and 9 PSAC Divisional victories.

Pitt-Johnstown will travel to Gannon University on Thursday for a PSAC doubleheader and will return home to close the 2021 conference season with doubleheaders against Gannon on Friday at 2:30 p.m. and California University of Pennsylvania on Sunday at 1 p.m. at V.E. Erickson Complex.