STEUBENVILLE – The Franciscan softball team rallied from behind in the first game to en route to an Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference doubleheader sweep of La Roche, Wednesday afternoon. Franciscan took the first game 4-3 before completing the sweep with a 7-1 victory in the second.
 
La Roche scored quickly in the first game plating three runs thanks to a pair of Lady Baron errors and two hits but that's all that the Red Hawks would get as freshman Tori Luyster came in to pitch in relief in the top of the second and pitched three scoreless innings.
 
Luyster pitched around a two-out error in the second before finding herself in some trouble in the third. After a lead-off error, Luyster got a pair of outs before Brandy Clyde worked a walk to put runners on the corners. Luyster got Meagan Haynes to pop up right back to her for the third out and keep the lead to just three.
 
The Lady Baron offense started to find their groove in the bottom of the third as a pair of walks and a single loaded the bases. With two outs, the Red Hawk pitcher threw the pitch in the dirt and it skipped away from the catcher just far enough to all junior Dennise Carrazco to come around and score.
 
Luyster got her first perfect inning as she got a pair of ground outs and a line out in the top of the fourth before the Lady Barons mounted their comeback. Freshman Chloe Cross led off the bottom of the fourth with a walk before senior Anna Ames singled. Freshman Mary Roach roped a single to right to bring home Cross and cut the lead to one, 3-2. Carrazco moved the runners with a successful sac bunt before sophomore Allyson Weiss doubled down the left field line to bring home Roach and Ames and give Franciscan the 4-3 lead.
 
Freshman Sarah Keating came out in relief in the top of the fifth and completed the three-inning save. Keating allowed just one hit while striking out four to complete her first save of the year.
 
Keating came back out in the second game and pitched a gem. Needing just 65 pitches for 11^th complete-game win of the year, Keating did not allow a walk and gave up just six hits. The Wadsworth, OH native allowed just one earned run in the top of the sixth but the Lady Baron offense picked her up and got the run back in the bottom of the frame. Keating gave up a one-out single before getting the final two batters swinging to close out the win.
 
The Franciscan offense got rolling a lot sooner in game two and freshman Rachel Cooper sent a pitch over the center field fence with junior Kathleen Thompson on to give the Lady Barons a 2-0 lead in the first.
 
Franciscan tacked on a run in the bottom of the second and fourth to push its lead to 4-0 after four innings.
 
Cooper led off the fifth inning with a single before stealing second and third. Freshman Anna Swierczewski singled through the left side to bring home Cooper and push the lead to 5-0. With runners on second and third, Ames grounded out to third and Swierczewski was able to come home for the 6-0 Franciscan lead.
 
After the Red Hawk run in the top of the sixth, Weiss answered the call with an one-out home run that bounced off and over of the center field fence to give Franciscan a 7-1 lead.
 
With the wins, the Lady Barons hit the 20-win mark for the first time in program history as they moved to 20-9 on the year. Franciscan improves to 9-5 in AMCC action.
 
The Lady Barons hit the road on Saturday as they travel to Penn State Behrend to take on the top-seeded Lions in a 1:00 pm AMCC doubleheader.