VIRGINIA BEACH, VA.– In the first game of the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament, the 10
th-ranked TCNJ softball team shut out Gettysburg by an 8-0 final score in five innings.
The Lions jumped on the Bullets with two runs in the first inning.
Allie Immerso worked a tough, nine-pitch at bat and drove in
Kaci Neveling with a blooper single to left field. After
Lauren Conroy reached on an error,
Elyse Nardozza drove in another run with a base knock to left field. TCNJ has outscored its opponents 37-15 in the first inning this season.
"Offensively we came out fast," TCNJ head coach
Sally Miller said. "We talked about that and we've been doing that all season, getting one or two runs every inning. We're doing that by combining our hitting with our speed, getting some key hits, and some key leadoff hits. That's what we have been doing, so we weren't going to change that here."
TCNJ continued to put the pressure on Gettysburg and scored three more runs in the second inning. Neveling reached on an error which scored
Julia Mayernik, who led off the inning with a gap double. The next batter was
Katie Winchock, who laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt that scored
Jaclyn Carifi. Neveling came around to score on an error to make it a 5-0 game.
Starting pitcher
Eliza Sweet mowed down the Gettysburg offense on her way to a complete game shutout. Sweet allowed only two singles and did not walk any batters. She improved to 11-2 on the season with the win. Coming into today's game, the Lions' pitching staff ranked fifth in the nation in shutouts with 14.
Carifi laced an RBI double in the third inning to stretch the lead to 6-0. Immerso ended the game in the fifth inning when she drove in a pair of runs with a base hit down the left field line to secure the eight-run rule.
Immerso went 2-4 with three RBIs and a run scored, while Nardozza, Mayernik, and Carifi each picked up two hits. The Lions tallied 11 hits during the game compared to the Bullets' two.
The Lions will continue action in the Virginia Beach Regional tomorrow. TCNJ will play Moravian at noon.
Postgame interview with head coach Sally Miller, Eliza Sweet, and Julia Mayernik:
