NEWBURGH, N.Y. – The top-seeded Mount Saint Mary College softball team (18-9) heads to the winner's bracket of the 2015 Skyline Conference Championship Tournament after defeating No. 4 The Sage Colleges (17-14), 3-2, in a gritty opening round matchup on Friday at the MSMC Softball Field.
The Knights will take on No. 2 Farmingdale State College tomorrow, April 24, at 10 a.m. after the Rams defeated No. 3 College of Mount Saint Vincent in game two, 8-0, in five innings. Sage will face off with Mount Saint Vincent in the tournament's first elimination game on Saturday at 1 p.m.
The frigid afternoon opened with back-to-back extra base hits to give the Gators an immediate 1-0 lead. Catcher Kristen Beikirch tripled over the right fielder's head, then second baseman Alexa Silk doubled down the left-field line to bring in the first run of the tournament. Designated player Morgan Dunn walked to give the Knights more trouble in the inning. Freshman pitcher
Cindy Connoly (Walden, N.Y.) then worked her way out of trouble, first by getting left fielder Alana Vandenburg to pop out to third, and Silk was caught too far off the bag for the double play. Shortstop Jessica Adams then popped out to third to end the inning.
The Knights responded like the top-seed should, by rallying back to quickly tie the game in their first at bat. Sophomore second baseman
Shannon Sommer (Brewster, N.Y.) ditched her usual slap-hitting swing and stroked a double over the left fielder to lead off the inning. With one away, senior third baseman
Danielle Soto (Miller Place, N.Y.) singled up the middle to bring Sommer in to score and knot things up at 1-1.
Connoly locked in for the next four innings, retiring 12 straight batters from the second inning through the fifth.
The Knights took full advantage of a pair of Gator errors in the bottom of the fourth. Senior catcher
Stephanie Karcher (Oxford, Conn.) opened the inning with a hard single up the middle, which got through the legs of the center fielder to allow her to advance all the way to third. Sophomore first baseman
Michelle Surdan (Acton, Mass.) then flew out to left, allowing Karcher to score on the sacrifice fly and give the Knights a 2-1 lead. Connoly kept the inning going with a double to left-center, and then junior right fielder
Chelsea Dexter (Beacon, N.Y.) reached on a dropped fly ball by the right fielder, scoring Connoly to give the Knights a two-run advantage.
The top of the sixth started off looking just like the previous four innings, with Connoly quickly getting the first two outs. Then, a dropped fly ball in left field put Silk on third base, and she then scored on a Dunn single to left to cut the deficit to just one.
The Knights went scoreless in the bottom of the sixth, but were still three outs away from advancing to the winner's bracket. Connoly got Adams to fly out to right to start the inning, and then third baseman Katy Rimawi popped up to short to leave the Knights an out away from victory. Pitcher Katie Kovage singled through the left side to keep the inning alive, and then a passed ball allowed pinch runner Meghan Roullier to advance to second, putting the tying run in scoring position. Connoly made sure to take care of business herself, striking out the final batter to pick up the win.
Connoly struck out nine batters and allowed just four innings in the complete seven innings. She improves to 9-5 on the season after allowing just one earned run. Kovage fell to 6-6 on the season after allowing three runs (one earned) on six hits in six innings.
Soto went 2-for-3 with an RBI to lead the Knights in the opening-round victory. Sommer batted 2-for-3 with a run and a double out of the leadoff spot. Connoly hit 1-for-2 with a double and a run scored. Senior catcher
Stephanie Karcher scored a run in her 1-for-3 outing.
Silk paced the Gators in the tournament's opener, going 1-for-3 with a double, a run and an RBI. Dunn hit 1-for-2 with an RBI, and Beikirch hit a triple and scored a run in a 1-for-3 afternoon.
Mount Saint Mary and Farmingdale State will square off on Saturday at 10 a.m. in the winner's bracket matchup. The winner of the game will advance to Sunday's championship round, while the loser will play an elimination game at 4 p.m. against the winner of Mount Saint Vincent vs. Sage. After a coin flip to determine the home and away teams, both Mount Saint Mary and Mount Saint Vincent won the right to play as the home team in games three and four, respectively.
Follow the Knights on Twitter at
@MSMCKnights for all in-game updates throughout the duration of the Skyline Conference Softball Championship Tournament.
