READING, Pa. – The Albright softball team opened the MAC Commonwealth portion of its schedule with a pair of exhilarating victories over Lycoming on Saturday afternoon. Albright won, 2-1, in game one on a Stephanie Pomante walk-off home run. That was her first career homer. In game two, the Lions outlasted the Warriors, 5-4, in 11 innings. Albright scored the winning run in game two on a squeeze play.

Game one turned into a pitcher's duel with Albright's Riley Gerenda starting the game with five scoreless innings. Albright didn't break through, either, sending the game into the bottom of fifth with no score.

In that frame, Britney Rodriguez walked and ended up at third after a wild pitch and a Pomante single. Stephany Courtney doubled to left center to score Rodriguez to break the scoreless tie. The Lions stranded runners at second and third, though, to leave it at 1-0 after five.

Lycoming responded with an unearned run in the top of the sixth. A two-out, infield single scored a run for Lycoming thanks to an errant throw earlier in the inning. It stayed 1-1 until the Lions' seventh-inning at-bat.

Pomante led off the inning, and she lifted a pitch deep into left that was a no-doubter home run to end the game.

Gerenda struck out four and walked just one while allowing four hits in getting the complete-game victory.

Game two featured more offense, but it took some small ball to get the victory for Albright. Lycoming took a 2-0 lead with runs in the second and third inning, but the Lions came back with three in its half of the third.

The first five Lions to bat in the inning reached thanks to two hits, two errors and a walk. Kelly Cembrale reached via an error, and she scored the first run of the frame two batters later thanks to another misplay by the Lycoming defense.

Pomante's single with one out loaded the bases, and that allowed Regina Milburn's fly to right to plate Brianne Long to make it 2-2. Armida Roman followed with a two-out single to score Jessica Rodriguez to give Albright a 3-2 lead with three unearned runs.

A leadoff double in the fifth inning for Lycoming tied the score at 3-3, and we stayed there until the 11^th inning.

After Lycoming scored one in the top of the frame with its international tiebreaker runner crossing the plate after starting the inning on second base, Albright needed a run to tie or two to win.

Jordan Chell's infield single put runners on the corners with no outs, and she stole second soon after to put the winning run in scoring position. A wild pitch tied the game while moving Chell to third base. Two batters later, Jessica Rodriguez executed a perfect squeeze bunt to score Chell for the 5-4 victory.

Gerenda earned the victory in relief in game two. She pitched 5.2 innings, allowing just one hit and the one unearned run in the tiebreaker scenario. She also didn't walk a hitter.

Chell, Pomante and Roman each had two hits to pace the Albright offense in game two.