WHEELING, W. Va. – Lorian Tharp's looping single into left field helped Wheeling Jesuit softball split with Notre Dame College on Saturday. The Lady Cardinals prevailed in game 1 on Tharp's hit, 3-2 in eight innings, before the Falcons held on for a 5-3 game two win.
 
WJU (12-12/8-4 Mountain East Conference) received an outstanding pitching performance from freshman Mallory Chapman in the opener. The New Martinsville, W. Va., product fanned eight Notre Dame batters, while scattering six hits, allowed one earned run and issued two walks. Chapman also blasted her third home run of the year, a solo shot in the fourth.
 
In game two, the Falcons (14-20/8-8 MEC) snapped the 3-3 tie with single runs in the fourth and sixth innings, while relief pitcher Amber Hall worked out of a bases loaded situation in the home sixth for the 5-3 win.
 
At the plate, Tharp paced the Lady Cardinal hitters with four hits, including a run-scoring double. Both Angie Reddick, Victoria Scott and Cassie Holstein accounted for three hits apiece. Reddick doubled in the first game, before she drove in a pair for game two with a solo homer and single.
 
Scott lined a double and singled two times, while Holstein had three singles, scored a run and stole a base.
 
Ali Smith laced two hits in game two and Kelsi Thompson slashed a hit in each game.
 
Notre Dame College's Kelsey Coleman was the day's big hitter. Coleman went 6-for-7 with a triple, two home runs and four RBI.
 
Wheeling Jesuit stays at home and hosts Urbana University in a Sunday doubleheader starting at 11 a.m.
 
Game 1
 
After three and a half scoreless innings, Chapman helped her own cause. The freshman connected for a long home run to right center field for a WJU 1-0 lead in the home fourth.
 
Notre Dame College took advantage of a Wheeling Jesuit error when Coleman tripled home the runner in the top of the fifth to tie, 1-1.
 
Chapman held the Falcons off the board in the sixth. With the bases loaded and one out, the Lady Cardinal pitcher fanned the next batter and enticed a ground out to end the threat.
Notre Dame College's Coleman struck again with a solo home run in the top of the seventh to go ahead, 2-1.
 
Reddick led off the home seventh with a double, moved to third on a Chapman sac bunt and scored the tying run two hitters later on a Dana Achille single to left field.
 
In the bottom of the eighth, Holstein beat out an infield single, was sacrificed to second base and move to third on a ground out to short stop. Tharp stepped to the plate and looped her game-winning single for the WJU victory, 3-2.
 
Game 2
 
Notre Dame College plated two runs to start the game on three hits. Wheeling Jesuit tied the game, 2-2, in its first at bat on RBI hits by Tharp, a double, and Reddick.
 
Trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the third, Reddick belted a solo home run to center field to tie the contest, 3-3.
 
The Falcons added single runs in the fourth and sixth for a 5-3 lead. With two on and two out in the bottom of the sixth, reliever Hall intentionally walked Reddick, before Scott's low line drive to center field was caught inches off the ground to end WJU's last scoring threat.