Dominican and Caldwell Fall in Softball Regional Championship Games
Details are below from this weekend's action, courtesy of each school's sports information office.
Cougars Eliminated by No. 18 Owls at NCAA Softball Regional
Sunday, May 06, 2012 12:00 PM
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Caldwell College softball team saw its run at the NCAA Division II East Region Tournament come to an end with a 4-1 loss to top-seeded Southern Connecticut State Sunday afternoon at Yale University's DeWitt Family Field. The Cougars, who advanced to the final day of the regional for the third time in the last four years, complete their season with a record of 39-16. The Owls (40-10) advance to next week's Super Regional against Molloy College.
Southern Connecticut, ranked 18th nationally, scored a run in the top of the first, then made it 2-0 in the third on a solo home run by Alyssa Downs. In the bottom of the third, freshman Kristen Knorr (Monroeville, NJ/Delsea) doubled home junior Dia Cascone (Staten Island, NY/Susan Wagner) to make the score 2-1. Knorr advanced to third on the play, but the Cougars were unable to drive her home with the tying run.
After the Cougars went down in order over the next three innings, Downs blasted a long two-run home run in the top of the seventh to increase the Owls' lead to 4-1. SCSU pitcher Jayme Larson closed out the game with another 1-2-3 inning in the seventh to clinch the region championship. Larson allowed one run on two hits while striking out five in a complete-game effort.
Junior Kourtney Wilson (Islip, NY/St. Anthony's) pitched 6 1/3 innings for the Cougars and fell to 17-8 on the season with the loss. She ranks fifth all-time at Caldwell with 45 career wins. Freshman Alyssa Calderon (Fontana, CA/Etiwanda) had the other hit for the Cougars. Knorr, who made a game-saving catch in centerfield in Saturday's 2-1 victory over UMass-Lowell, made another spectacular diving catch in the sixth inning.
The loss also marked the final collegiate game for seniors Rebecca Ashley (Bellingham, MA/Mt. St. Charles Acad.), Katie Margiotta (Sewell, NJ/Washington Twp.) and Marisa Tamez (Fountain Valley, CA/Fountain Valley). The trio helped the Cougars win 150 games over the past four years.
This was the eighth appearance in the NCAA Regional in the last nine years for Caldwell, which returns 15 players from this year's squad.
2012 NCAA Division II East Region Softball Tournament
Host: Southern Connecticut State University (held at Yale University, New Haven, Conn.)
Friday, May 4
Game 1: #1 Southern Connecticut St. 1, #8 Assumption 0
Game 2: #5 UMass-Lowell 4, #4 Caldwell 3
Saturday, May 5
Game 3: #1 Southern Connecticut St. 5, #5 UMass-Lowell 4
Game 4: #4 Caldwell 3, #8 Assumption 0
Game 5: #4 Caldwell 2, #5 UMass-Lowell 1
Sunday, May 6
Game 6: Southern Connecticut St. 4, #4 Caldwell 1
Dominican Eliminated by Molloy in NCAA Division II East Region 2 Final
Brookville, NY (5/6/12) The Dominican College softball team, ranked sixth in the East Region, fell twice today to #2 Molloy College in the NCAA Division II East 2 Regional Finals. With the losses, Dominican is eliminated from the tournament and ends the season with an 39-17 overall record.
Game One: DC fell in game one, 5-0 to the Lions. Molloy pitching limited the Lady Chargers to just four hits.
Katrina Pistilli* (Staten Island, NY) suffered the loss (15-9), allowing five runs (three earned) on seven hits.
Game Two: The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fourth inning when Molloy struck with a run for a 1-0 lead.
The Lady Chargers came back with two runs in the sixth inning as rightfielder Shelby Wassmann (Loudoun, VA) hit her fourth home run of the year to left center field to plate two runs and give DC the 2-1 advantage.
MC tied the contest in the bottom stanza, but Dominican regained the lead in the top of the seventh inning as senior Ashley Martinez* (Bloomfield, NJ) was hit by a pitch and shortstop Julie Plante* (Swansea, MA) followed with a double the allowed Martinez to score all the way from first base to put Dominican up 3-2.
With two one, two outs and the Lions down to the final strike, the batter hit a single to left field to score two runs and give the Lions the 4-3 victory.
Delaney Childers (Johnstown, OH) took the loss (24-8), allowing four runs on eight hits.
Wassmann went 2-3 with two RBIs in game two.
Molloy now advances to the East Region Super Regionals next weekend.
Host: C.W. Post, Brookville, N.Y.
Friday, May 4
Game 1: vs. #6 Dominican 4, #3 C.W. Post 2, 12 innings
Game 2: #2 Molloy 2, #7 Adelphi 0
Saturday, May 5
Game 3: #6 Dominican 7, #2 Molloy 3
Game 4: #7 Adelphi 3, #3 C.W. Post 0
Game 5: #2 Molloy 3, #7 Adelphi 2
Sunday, May 6
Game 6: #2 Molloy 5, #6 Dominican 0
Game 7: #2 Molloy 4, #6 Dominican 3
