Newburgh, N.Y. – Junior Cindy Connoly (Walden, N.Y.) earned her 11^th win of the season in the circle and delivered the game winning run at the plate in the bottom of the seventh as the Mount Saint Mary College Softball team rallied for a 3-2 win over Farmingdale State to open play in the 2017 Skyline Conference Championship.
 
Each team was held off the board in their first three at-bats, until the Rams broke through with the game's first run in the top of the fourth inning. Alexa Luna led off the inning with a double and later scored on a Lori Michalowski sacrifice fly to give Farmingdale State a 1-0 lead.
 
Mount Saint Mary answered in the bottom of the fifth inning when Amanda Almodovar (Goshen, N.Y.) shot a single through the left side with one out to push home Nicolette Moustouka (Seaford, N.Y.) with the Knights' first run. The single kept the bases loaded with one out, but Farmingdale State starter Jaxie Collard wiggled out the jam with a strikeout and a fly out.
 
Farmingdale State moved back in front by a run in the sixth, taking advantage of two base hits. Ginger Sherry opened the inning with a single and advanced to the second on a misplay in left center and later scored on a bunt single that made its way into the shortstop hole to give the Rams a 2-1 lead.
 
The Knights moved a runner into scoring position in the sixth without scoring and in the seventh saw Shannon Sommer (Brewster, N.Y.) and Almodovar reach on infield singles with one out. After Collard recorded a strikeout, Connoly sent a shot up the left center field gap to chase home the tying and game winning runs for the Knights.
 
Connoly finished the game 2-for-4 at the plate with the team's only extra base hit of the game and drove in her team leading 34^th and 35^th runs of the season. Almodovar was 3-for-4 with a run and RBI, with Sommer going 2-for-4 with a run scored. Kathryn Eiler (Merrick, N.Y.) rounded out a quartet of Knights with two hits in the game.

In the circle, Connoly moved to 11-7 and lowered her earned run average to 1.83. She worked her team leading 18^th complete game and allowed one earned run on four hits while striking out four. Collard was strong for the Rams, allowing three runs and fanning four.
 
Thursday's win pushes Mount Saint Mary to 25-12 overall on the season. The Knights will take on St. Joseph's-L.I. in a winner' bracket game on Saturday at 11:00 a.m.
 
Game Notes: The Knights are 4-0 in their last four championship outings…Thursday's win extended the Mount's winning streak to eight games…Connoly is tied for the team lead in wins and leads the team in RBI…Friday's games were moved to Saturday due to the threat of heavy rain.