The first Centennial Conference home doubleheader for the Muhlenberg softball team was worth the wait.

Behind superior pitching efforts from sophomore Raya Kunes and senior Cora Bridgers, the Mules (16-18, 7-5) swept Gettysburg, 1-0 and 3-1, to put themselves in the thick of the CC playoff race. 

With one week to go in the regular season, Muhlenberg is tied with McDaniel for the fourth and final playoff spot, one game behind both Haverford and Washington. The Mules close out with home doubleheaders against Ursinus (3-9 CC) and Washington.

Kunes and Bridgers combined to allow no earned runs and 10 hits in 14 innings against a Bullet squad that scored 31 runs in sweeping a doubleheader at Washington yesterday.

Kunes tossed her first career shutout in the opener, giving up six hits and walking one while striking out three. She allowed a leadoff single and issued her lone walk in the first inning, but she did not have another inning in which more than one batter reached base. Only one Bullet advanced as far as second base after the first inning.

The zeroes piled up on the scoreboard until the bottom of the sixth inning. With one out, senior Genna Cicchetti hit a double to deep left field - one of her four hits on the day. She advanced to third on a passed ball and scored easily on a fly ball to right field by freshman Kaitlyn Buurman.

Kunes gave up a two-out single in the top of the seventh but retired the final hitter on a ground ball to complete her gem and wrap up the Mules' first 1-0 win in the CC since 2015.

Bridgers tied her career high with 12 strikeouts in the nightcap. She fanned multiple batters in each of the first five innings and struck out the Bullets' leading hitter, who came in having gone down on strikes only three times all season, twice.

Gettysburg (16-14, 7-7), the defending CC champion, plated an unearned run in the top of the second and maintained its 1-0 lead through the top of the fifth. Sophomore center fielder Gillian Zack helped keep the deficit at one run by throwing out a runner attempting to go first to third on a single to end the fourth.

Muhlenberg had two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the fifth before stringing together five straight hits to take the lead. Singles by Cicchetti, Zack and Buurman loaded the bases for senior Kristin Oberg, who celebrated her 22nd birthday by dropping a single just inside the right-field line. Two runs scored on the hit, and when the throw from right field got loose, Buurman (pictured above) also scored.  

Bridgers retired six of the seven hitters she faced in the sixth and seventh to finish her 25th career win. Senior Sarah Karmazyn, who narrowly missed a home run in the third when her deep drive hit the top of the fence and bounced back into the field, ended the game with a diving stop at third base.