Courtesy: U of R Athletics
The University of Rochester claimed its tenth Liberty League softball championship and its ninth bid to the NCAA Division III softball playoffs by defeating Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2-1, on Sunday afternoon.
Rochester will find out its fate in the tournament draw on Monday afternoon when the playoff field is announced at 1 p.m. on NCAA.com. UR is 26-13. The win over RPI is the 24th in the past 25 games for the Yellowjackets.
RPI finished its season at 25-17. The Engineers (10-4 in LL play) were the third seed in the Liberty League playoffs behind Rochester (13-1) and Ithaca (11-3). The fourth playoff team was Skidmore College (7-7).
On Thursday, Rochester defeated Skidmore, 9-0, in a game shorted to five innings. RPI edged Ithaca, 1-0. On Friday, Rochester held off RPI, 6-4, in the winners’ bracket. Ithaca downed Skidmore, 7-0, in an elimination game. RPI reached the Saturday championship game by defeating Ithaca, 5-2, in nine innings.
Emily Sharlach pitched a seven-hitter with two walks and two strikeouts for Rochester. She stranded seven RPI runners – six in the last four innings, four in scoring position. She was matched well by RPI’s Brooke Sroczinski. The hard-throwing RPI right-hander threw seven innings of two-hit ball on Friday in the 5-2 win over Ithaca. She had 13 strikeouts, but did not get the win because with two down in the bottom of the seventh, Ithaca hit a game-tying HR (1-1).
Rochester took a 2-0 lead in the first against Erika Holowka. With one out, Loren Castilloux lined a single to center. Two pitches later, Hannah Keiper launched a two-run HR over the left field fence. It was her second HR in two days (she hit a three-run HR vs. RPI on Friday.) Keiper was named the Most Outstanding Performer of the Tournament. She made several sharp fielding plays on Saturday and had the HRs on back to back days vs. RPI.
Holowka was taken out after the second inning. In the top of the third, the Engineers found an unearned run. Jessica Torch bunted for a single with two outs. Torch stole second. The ball rolled away on the tag and she scrambled to third. She scored on a passed ball with Cat Worthington at bat. Worthington popped to center, ending the inning.
Sroczinski came on for the third and wound up finishing the game. In four innings, she allowed three hits and three walks with five whiffs. In the UR 4th, she walked Allison Beckwith and Hunter Gilbreath. Bailey Nicholoff bunted both runners up a base. Sroczinski escaped with back to back strikeouts.
RPI loaded the bases with one out in the fifth. Mikayla O’Neill ripped a double to left. She was bunted to third by Ryleigh Greenwald. Torch walked and Cat Worthington dropped a bunt single in front of the plate. Sharlach bore down. She inducted Erin Askins to pop out to third on the first pitch. Then she retired Gabby Comeau on a fly to left.
UR threatened in the fifth and the sixth. With one out in the fifth, Ally Kim singled. She stole second, then stole third when the catcher dropped the third strike on Castilloux and had to throw her out at first. Keiper flied out to left to end the inning.
In the sixth, Bailey Nicholoff singled with two out. Madi Turner singled to right and Nicholoff took third. Pinch-runner Savannah Nowak stole second and Molly Mason walked to load the bases. Alexis Klee hit into a force play at third base, ending the inning.
O’Neill singled to start the RPI seventh. Greenwald bunted her to second. Torch pulled the ball to the right side where Keiper grabbed it and tagged her for the second out with the tying run moving to third and the heart of the RPI order coming up. On the third pitch to Worthington, she popped it up and Kim squeezed the ball for the clinching out.
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