Softball

FREEDOM CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
DeSales University 11, Delaware Valley College 0 (5 innings)

EDWARDSVILLE (PA) - After five games and 40 innings, the Delaware Valley College softball team finally ran out of gas. The Aggies' dream run in the Freedom Conference Championships came to a disappointing end as top-seeded DeSales University captured the title with an 11-0 victory in the deciding game of the tournament.

Delaware Valley entered the championships as the third seed and began their run with an improbable, 5-4 win in 14 innings over defending conference champion King's College on Friday. The Aggies had to take the field 30 minutes later in the winner's bracket and suffered a 2-0 loss to DeSales. That put Delaware Valley in consolation bracket on Saturday where they had to defeat King's again for a berth to the championship round.

The Aggies rallied again from a deficit against the Lady Monarchs and reached the championship round for the first time in program history with a 6-4 victory. DeSales was waiting for them and the Aggies would have to beat them twice to win the conference title and the automatic berth to the NCAA Division III playoffs that goes along with them. Delaware Valley kept its dream alive with a 2-1 victory over the Bulldogs to force a winner-take-all final game.

However, the five games (six if you count the 14-inning marathon as two contests) took its toll on the team, especially the senior pitching duo of Jennifer Bummer and Kirstyn Ruhling. The two combined to pitch every inning of the tournament leading to the championship tilt and Bummer got the starting nod for that contest.

Delaware Valley, which was the home team for the game (DeSales chose to be home for the first game) threatened in the bottom of the first as, with one out, Lacy Miles singled to center and Pavlik ripped a double to right-center. DeSales made a quick pitching change to a fresh Larissa Tenley, who had not yet pitched in the championships. The move paid off as she got a Kelly Andrews to pop out to first and Nicole Dorney to fly out to left to end the stanza.

The Bulldogs then struck first with three runs in the top of the second. Kate Steiner put the first run on the board as she smacked a 2-1 pitch over the right-center field fence. They then put runners on second and third with two outs and Maddie Roxandich smacked a ball off the fence in right-center field for a two-run double to make it a 3-0 ballgame.

Steiner went deep again in the third, this time to left field and with a runner on and two outs, for a 5-0 DeSales lead. Meanwhile Tenley kept rolling as she retired the first nine batters she faced. The streak was halted in the fourth when Andrews hit a double off the top of the fence with one out. However, Tenley got a fly out and a ground out to end the inning.

The lead expanded to 11-0 in the fifth thanks to another two-out rally. Jen Lococo had a two-run single and Jamie Pfitzenmayer followed with a three-run bomb over the center field fence. Another Bulldog reached base before Roxandich nearly hit it in the same spot as Pfitzenmayer for a two-run homer.

In the bottom of the fifth and with the eight-run rule looming, Tenley retired the first two Aggies before Robyn Jackson singled to keep the game alive. However, Kim Harle grounded to Steiner to short and the tournament Most Valuable Player threw to first for the third out and the first-ever softball conference championship for DeSales.

For Delaware Valley, the Aggies finished the memorable campaign with a school-record 18 wins (18-19), a second straight trip to the Freedom playoffs and their first appearance in the championship game. Their six seniors - Andrews, Bummer, Dorney, Harle, Ruhling and Maureen Ferguson - led the charge and helped turn around a dormant program that notched an 8-25 record the year before they arrived.