LVC-Albright Box Score LVC-Moravian Box Score #1 LVC-Moravian Box Score #2
SELINSGROVE, Pa. – Third-seeded Lebanon Valley upset top-seeded Moravian College 3-1 in the first game of the championship round of the Commonwealth Conference softball tournament, but the Greyhounds came back with an identical 3-1 win the tournament’s seventh and decisive game to win the Commonwealth Conference championship for the sixth year in a row Saturday afternoon at tournament host Susquehanna University.
Moravian (33-7) receives an automatic bid in the NCAA Division III championship tournament. Lebanon Valley (29-12) will now hope for a possible at-large berth in the NCAAs. The field will be announced late Sunday night.
Lebanon Valley set a single-season program record for victories with its 4-0 win over Albright College earlier in the day, as LVC surpassed its previous record set last season when the Flying Dutchmen finished 27-12.
LVC received outstanding pitching in the tournament, holding its opponents to six runs (five earned) over five games and 37 2/3 innings. Lebanon Valley’s pitchers walked just four batters while striking out 20.
The championship game marked a rematch of two years again between Lebanon Valley and Moravian. In 2004 LVC, then the second seed, beat top-seeded Moravian 2-1 in the first game of the championship round before the Greyhounds won 2-1 in the final.
This season, Lebanon Valley pounded nine hits against all-America pitcher Meagan Hennessy in the first game of the championship round, but Hennessy came back to fire a three-hitter in the final. The Greyhounds got on the scoreboard when Richelle McWilliams hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the second against LVC starter Jenn Roberts.
Moravian added single runs in the third and fifth before senior Alisa Albers came on to throw a pair of scoreless inning in relief. For the tournament Albers hurled nine scoreless innings, all against Moravian.
Through the first six innings, Hennessy allowed just two baserunners, which came via a single from junior Lisa DiCristofaro in the first and an error in the third. She retired 10 in a row from the third through the sixth before junior Amy Batz walked leading off the bottom of the seventh. Freshman Crystal Nolen ripped a two-out single to center two batters later before junior Kelly O’Toole singled to right, making it 3-1. But with runners on first and second, Hennessy got a tournament-clinching strikeout.
Roberts (12-5) was charged with the loss, yielding three runs on nine hits and one walk. She struck out two. Hennessy (22-5) walked one and struck out four.
Sheri Bienick was 3-for-4 in the final for Moravian.
In the first game of the championship round, Lebanon Valley scored all of its runs in the first inning against Hennessy, who limited the Valley to five hits in her 10-inning win over LVC one day earlier.
Sophomore Lauren Sanford led off with a single and was sacrificed to second by DiCristofaro. Batz then worked a full count before reaching on an infield single to the shortstop. Junior Jenn Parks followed up with a line shot down the rightfield line, running it out for a two-run, one-out triple. Two batters later, Nolen singled through the left side, scoring Parks to make it 3-0.
Making her first pitching appearance of the tournament, O’Toole started and worked out of trouble in each of the first three innings before settling in. She left the bases loaded in the first, getting an inning-ending fielder’s choice, then stranded runners on first and second in the second. Moravian finally broke through the third, scratching out its only run of the game on three singles.
O’Toole worked three-up, three-down innings in the fourth and fifth, then blanked the Greyhounds in the sixth while leaving a runner on first. Moravian threatened in the seventh, as leadoff hitter Erica Klepeisz led off with a single. After O’Toole got a pair of outs, cleanup hitter Bieniek singled to put runners on first and third, but O’Toole struck out McWilliams to secure the victory.
All but two starters hit safely for LVC in the first game of the championship round. Sanford was 2-for-4 while freshman Katie DeJulio went 2-for-3. Klepeisz was 3-for-4 for Moravian.
O’Toole (7-4) scattered nine hits, walked two, and struck out two. Hennessy walked one and fanned eight.
Roberts put Lebanon Valley in the championship round with her second stellar performance of the tournament against Albright. After throwing a five-hit complete game in the team’s first-round, 9-1 win over the Lions on Friday, Roberts fashioned an eight-hit shutout in LVC’s victory on Saturday.
Lebanon Valley jumped on Albright starter Meredith Mayes (3-8) for all four of the team’s runs on six hits over the first two innings. Parks made it 1-0 with an RBI-single to right-center in the first before LVC put up three runs on four hits in the second. O’Toole and sophomore Amy Weist ripped back-to-back singles leading off before Sanford drove in the team’s second run with a single down the leftfield line. Batz completed the Valley’s scoring with a two-out, two-run double to right-center.
Roberts threw only one three-up, three-down inning – the first – but she truly scattered her eight hits. The Lions (14-23) had one single in every inning from the second through the fifth, but failed to reach second in all four frames. After Roberts got the first two outs in the sixth, Albright put runners on first and second following a pair of singles, but she induced a foul pop behind the plate to get out of it. Then in the seventh, the Lions had runners on first and second again, but the game ended when O’Toole snared a hard liner at first base.
Ashley Young, the losing pitcher in Friday’s game between LVC and Albright, came on in relief in the third. After yielding a walk and a single in the third, she settled in to retire the final 11 batters.
Roberts did not walk a batter and struck out three. O’Toole finished 2-for-3 while DiCristofaro scored a pair of runs.
[Photo - Junior Kelly O'Toole, who threw a complete-game win over Moravian in the Commonwealth Conference playoffs on Saturday]
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