Clutch pitching lifted the Muhlenberg softball team to a 1-0 win against MIT in the first of two games at Salisbury. Susquehanna took the second game, 3-1.

Senior Justine Bergara and freshman Abigail Kim combined on the shutout in the opener despite allowing 11 hits. It is believed to be the most hits allowed in a shutout in program history, besting a nine-hit shutout of Eastern Mennonite in 2009.

Bergara and Kim consistently worked out of trouble, stranding multiple runners in four of the seven innings. The Engineers (4-2), who have won at least 30 games and played in the NCAA Tournament each of the past three years, loaded the bases with one out in the second before Bergara induced a force at the plate and a flyout.

Another fly ball ended a bases-loaded threat in the third. MIT had runners on second and third with one out in the fourth, but Bergara again escaped unscathed with a strikeout and groundout.

Kim stranded both runners she inherited in the sixth and worked around a leadoff single in the seventh.

The Mules had relatively few scoring chances, managing only three hits in the game, but scratched out the winning run in the bottom of the seventh. After junior Scooter Hulsen and freshman Morgan Bobrowski led off the inning with singles, a groundout moved them into scoring position.

Hulsen was thrown out at the plate on an attempted squeeze, but on the next batter Bobrowski (pictured above) scored standing up on a wild pitch – the first time Muhlenberg won 1-0 on a walkoff wild pitch since 1998.

The Mules (9-5) struggled offensively again in the second game, recording only three hits and scoring their lone run without a hit in the first inning.