Game 1 Box
Game 2 Box
ANNVILLE, Pa. - Lebanon Valley College clinched the Commonwealth Conference regular-season title Saturday with a sweep of Elizabethtown College, 3-1 and 2-0.
The Dutchmen (24-9, 9-1 CC), who finish the season 14-2 at home, will be the #1 seed in next weekend's conference tournament to be held at the LVC Softball Park. They will host Messiah in the first game of the double-elimination tournament Friday at 11 a.m. In the other match-up, the third-seeded Blue Jays (11-22, 5-5 CC) will take on second-seeded Widener.
LVC finishes the season tied with Widener at 9-1, but earns the top seed by the slimmest of margins. With the two teams splitting the regular-season series, it came down to a series of tiebreakers, and on the eighth tie-breaker (run differential in the season series), the Dutchmen held a +1 margin.
Two Dutchmen tied records in the game; senior Jess Salisbury's towering home run in game one was her fifth of the season, tying the single-season record, while sophomore Kristen Uhas knocked in her 30th run of the season, also tying a season record.
Val Malizzia picked up the win in game one to go to 10-3, outdueling Alex Lee with a one-run, four-hit complete game. Laura Snyder improved to 12-2 with a four-hit, 10-strikeout shutout in game two.
E-town struck first in game one, taking a 1-0 lead when Abbie Merrifield doubled in Marian Guzik, and the score stayed that way until LVC put three across in the third. After Katie DeJulio drew a two-out walk, Uhas doubled to the fence in left-center to score DeJulio from first. Salisbury then stepped in and crushed a long home run to left to make it 3-1 LVC.
E-town threatened in the fourth with Paige Tanner's triple and again in the sixth with two on and two out, but both times Malizzia managed to work out of the jam and secure the win.
In game two, Snyder tossed a gem, striking out 10 to earn her 11th complete game win of the season. In the third, DeJulio bounced a ground-rule double over the fence in left-center to score Chelsea Artz for what would be the winning run, and Snyder helped herself with an RBI single in the fourth to plate Meghan Donoghue.
Meanwhile, E-town managed to put runners in scoring position just three times as it failed to score a run.
