VIRGINIA BEACH, Va.– In the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament, the No. 10 TCNJ softball team went toe-to-toe with No. 3 and host Virginia Wesleyan in a heavyweight bout, but the Marlins ultimately came out on top with a 4-3 win in eight innings.
TCNJ will play Gettysburg tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. The winner of that game will face Virginia Wesleyan at noon.
The Lions and Marlins were gridlocked at 0-0 all the way through seven innings. In the eighth,
Katie Winchock worked a two-out walk, then
Allie Immerso laced a base hit to center field. Winchock advanced to third then Immerso trailed to second on the throw.
Lauren Conroy grounded one back to Virginia Wesleyan pitcher Hannah Hall, yet Hall threw it away and two runs came around to score.
The next batter was
Julia Kinnally, who ripped a double to the left center gap that bounced off the top of the wall. Conroy motored around third and came in to score to give the Lions a 3-0 lead. Kinnally went 3-4 in today's game.
Virginia Wesleyan refused to go away easily and rallied in the bottom of the eighth inning. After two runners got on, Julia Sinnett singled in a pair.
Gillian Roberts entered in a tough spot coming on in relief of Sweet, and got the second out with a strikeout. The Marlins then got a pair of singles to come from behind and get the walk-off win.
The game was a scoreless pitcher's duel and a tightly contested battle between two of the top teams in the nation. TCNJ starting pitcher
Eliza Sweet went 7.1 strong innings against a talented Marlin offense. Sweet struck out six batters and only walked one.
Sweet got out of a tough jam in the bottom of the third inning. With one out, the Marlins had runners on second and third. Sweet got two strikeouts to escape unscathed and keep the game locked at 0-0
Sweet got out of another tough situation in the fourth inning. With a runner on third and two outs, she induced another swinging strikeout to preserve the scoreless tie.
In the fifth inning,
Julia Mayernik gunned down a runner trying to steal to end the inning. The freshman catcher delivered a bullet throw to Kinnally, who applied the tag to get the Lions back in the dugout.
The Lions will resume action in the NCAA Regionals tomorrow against Gettysburg, with first pitch set for 10:00 a.m.
