WESTFIELD, Mass. -- Westfield State senior 3B Maddy Atkocaitis (Westfield, Mass.) hit for the cycle as the Owls split a MASCAC doubleheader with Worcester State on Friday. Westfield won game one by a 6-4 final score, while Worcester rallied for a 6-5 win in game 2.

Westfield State is now 4-10 overall, 1-1 in the MASCAC, while Worcester is 3-8 and 1-1 in the conference.

GAME 1

Worcester State took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, with Dakota Smith-Porter's (Turners Falls/Montague, Mass.) single driving in Ashley Lynch (Shrewsbury, Mass).

Westfield scored three runs on five hits in the third inning, as Caitlin Hughes (Whitman-Hanson/Hanson, Mass.), Karly Mastello (Westfield/Russell, Mass.) and Angelica Banning (Granby/W. Suffield, Conn.) all delivering RBI base hits. The Owls added single runs in the fourth, fifth and seventh inning, while the Lancers pushed across a pair of unearned runs in the fifth.

Hughes finished 3-4 with two runs and two RBI. Mastello, Banning and Lindsay Cordopatri (Walpole, Mass.) added a pair of hits each for Westfield.

Westfield freshman starter Emily Arredondo (2-5) (Woburn, Mass.) allowed just one earned run while scattering nine hits and striking out four. For Worcester, Smith-Porter took the pitching loss, yielding 13 hits and four earned runs while striking out four.

Smith-Porter, Lynch, Sydney DesPres (Wachussett/Sterling, Mass.) and Becky Brandenberry (Naragansett/Phillipston, Mass.) each had a pair of hits for the Lancers.

GAME 2

Westfield State got on the board first with a solo home run from Atkocaitis, but the Lancers answered with a 2-run blast from Smith-Porter, who's high fly to center field just eluded the glove of Owls' center fielder Bri Tortora (St. Peter Marian/Worcester, Mass.), who leapt into the wall and got a glove on the ball but could not bring the ball back into the park.

Westfield scored three times in the third, as Atkocaitis tripled to score Cordopatri. Hughes base' hit drove in Atkocaitis, and Hughes eventually scored on Michaela LeBlanc's (Marblehead, Mass.) RBI ground out to lead 4-2.

The Lancers struck for a single run in the bottom of the third, but Westfield answered in the top of the fourth, with Atkocaitis rapping a double to score Tortora.

Worcester tied the game at 5-5 in the bottom of the fifth as Smith-Porter hit her second home run on the game, a 2-run shot over the right field scoreboard.

The Lancers grabbed the lead in the sixth inning as Samantha Stake (Doherty/Worcester, Mass.) reached on an error and eventually came around to score on a base hit from Lynch. The Owls cut down a potential insurance run later in the inning as Owls shortstop Maddie Keigwin (Sutton, Mass.) threw to the plate and Hughes applied the tag, but Westfield went 1-2-3 in the seventh for the 6-5 final.

Carly Zielinski (2-0) (Monson, Mass.) earned the win in relief of starter Rachel Frisch (Worcester Tech), who exited after being hit by a batted ball in the third inning. Emily Woodworth (2-5) (Northborough, Mass.) took the loss for the Owls.

Westfield's Atkocaitis hit for the cycle in her first four at bats, homering in the first, tripling to right in the third, doubling to left center in the fourth, and rapping a base hit up the middle in the sixth.

Worcester State was the designated "home team" and hit last in both games, as the game was originally scheduled to be played in Worcester but was moved to Westfield for better field conditions as Worcester was hit hard by a recent snowstorm.