The Muhlenberg softball team ended its 2016 season with a home doubleheader split against Franklin & Marshall, winning the opener, 8-2, and dropping the nightcap, 3-2 in eight innings.

The Mules, who honored seniors Taylor Trifiolis, Nicole Iannarone, Alexis Giovinazzo and Amie DeFeo (pictured left to right above) before the twinbill, needed to win both games and get favorable results from other games to qualify for the Centennial Conference playoffs. Although the results did go their way, they came up just short in the nightcap, missing the playoffs by the slimmest of margins.

Muhlenberg got its day off to a good start by scoring four runs in the bottom of the first. Iannarone scored the first run on the front end of a double steal. Sophomore Hanna Caiola brought in a run with her 12th double of the season, and classmates Karissa Astrella and Paige Seitz added RBI singles.

Astrella led off the third with a double - the second of her four hits - and scored on another double steal with sophomore Amelia Shelley, who later scored on a groundout to make it 6-0.

The Diplomats (20-16, 7-9) scored twice in the top of the sixth, but the Mules regained their six-run lead with two in the bottom of the inning. Iannarone doubled in junior Sarah Merlo, who led off with a single, and came home on a throwing error.

Sophomore Hayley Peterson retired the side in the seventh, ending the game with her fifth strikeout, to complete her ninth win of the season.

Muhlenberg (15-23, 8-8) trailed for most of the second game before tying it in dramatic fashion on a two-out, two-run homer by freshman Kristina Qualben in the bottom of the sixth - her sixth home run of the season.

The Mules, who split all eight of their CC doubleheaders, loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh but could not push the winning run across. A home run by F&M in the top of the eighth accounted for the winning run.

Trifiolis went 4-for-8 on her last day to finish the season with an even .400 batting average.