For Immediate Release May 12, 2001
Roanoke and Salisbury to Play for Region Title
Top Two Teams Meet at 1:00pm On Sunday
SALEM, VA—The Roanoke College Maroons and Salisbury State Sea Gulls will play at 1:00pm on Sunday afternoon for the 2001 NCAA Division III Atlantic Region softball championship and the right to advance to the national championship bracket. Roanoke advanced with 5-3 win over SSU on Saturday, while the Sea Gulls had to beat Muhlenberg, 6-0, to get to the title game. Game 5 - Roanoke 5, Salisbury State 3 Roanoke College advanced to the NCAA Division III Atlantic Regional softball championship game with a 5-3 win over Salisbury State on Saturday afternoon in Salem, VA. The Maroons, behind the efforts of senior Amy Layman, improve to 40-8 on the season. Salisbury State fell to 35-8on the season.
The Maroons jumped out to a 5-0 lead, before holding off a late charge by the Sea Gulls to get the win, avenging a 3-1 loss to SSU in March. With one out and none on in the third inning, Crystal Berry singled. With two outs, Holly Morris singled and Berry went to third. The next batter, Rachel Capozzi added RC’s third hit of the inning, brining in Berry. The Maroons would add their second run of the game in the next frame on an RBI single by Crystal Hileman which scored Lisa Wasiloff who had reached on a one-out single.
Roanoke’s big inning came in the fifth when they plated three base runners to push the lead to five. Layman singled to get the inning going and advanced a base on a passed ball. Catcher Holly Morris followed with an RBI single and went to second on the throw to the plate. Capozzi backed that up with her second RBI single. With Capozzi standing on third after two SSU errors, she added RC’s fifth run of the game on Salisbury’s third fielding miscue of the inning.
The Sea Gulls made things much more interesting in the bottom of the sixth, scoring three runs to trim the RC advantage to just two. Meghan Henning led the inning off with a single and went all the way to third on a single off the bat of Katie Mullinix two batters later. Terri Amalfitano, who started the game in the circle for the Sea Gulls, brought in Henning on a single during the inning’s next at bat. With two on and one out, Layman came on to pitch in relief of Priscilla Hill. The first batter she faced, Rosie Aley, singled to bring in SSU’s second run. Jacki Warrington then hit a pop foul behind first base, which the RC secondbaseman caught, but Amalfitano scored on the tag-up.
Layman finished the day with two hits and also picked up her second save of the season. She also made a running catch at the wall in the third inning when SSU had two runners on, preventing either run to score. Capozzi finished with two hits and two runs batted in. Priscilla Hill picked up her 17th consecutive college win. She is undefeated in two collegiate seasons, including a 13-0 mark this season. Roanoke’s one through four hitters produced seven of RC’s 10 hits and four of the five runs.
Henning had two hits and a run for SSU, while each of the nine Sea Gull batters that got an at bat had at least one hit. Amalfitano went four innings in the circle, allowing four earned runs and strikingout three Roanoke batters.
Game 6 - Muhlenberg 6, York 1 Muhlenberg scored runs in three of the first four innings and benefited from four York College errors in that same span in a 6-1 win in an elimination game. The Mules improved to 25-16 on the season, while the Spartans see their season come to a close with a 32-7 mark.
MC’s Lori Blanchfield led off the bottom of the first inning reaching on one of the two York errors in the inning. Later in the frame with the bases loaded, Jaclyn Maser hit a shot to secondbase, but the York defensive player was unable to make a clean play and Blanchfield scored from third to make the score 1-0.
Again in the fourth, the Mules got the lead-off batter on, Blanchfield again. Becki Toth also singled in the inning, and both base runners came in on a Maser double. The Spartans cut into the lead in the sixth inning, getting one run on two hits and one Muhlenberg College error. Joy Byers led the inning off with a single and later came in on an error at third.
Angie Tyson got her 11th win of the season for the Mules, against eight losses. Tyson went all seven allowing the one run and fanning two batters. The game was her 19th complete game of the season. She allowed just three hits in the contest. Toth and Maser each finished with two hits. York’s Staci Lehn allowed four runs, but just one was earned in taking her just her second loss of the season. All four of the runs she allowed came in the first two innings. The Spartans committed five errors in the game, leading to the three unearned runs.
Game 7 - Salisbury State 6, Muhlenberg 0 The Sea Gulls scored three runs in the top of the third inning despite getting just one hit. Three walks and a Muhlenberg error resulted in three unearned runs. Meghan Henning led off the inning with a walk and moved to third when the Muhlenberg pitcher committed an error on the next play. Henning scored on a groundout to short by Katie Mullinix. With the score 2-0 in SSU’s favor later in the inning, Lisa Gentilella produced the lone hit of the inning, a double that drove in Terri Amalfitano.
The Sea Gull lead moved to four in the top of the third. April Hraned took the first pitch of the inning over the leftfield wall for her 15th homerun of the season. The Sea Gulls scored their fourth unearned run of the contest in the fifth inning after April Harned fly ball to rightfield was dropped. Harned later came around to score three batters later.
The Mules had a scoring threat in the fourth with runners on second and third with two outs, but were unable to bring in either runner.
Despite a solid outing, Danielle DeLucia was tagged with the loss. The freshman gave up six runs, but just two were earned. DeLucia allowed just six SSU hits, but was hurt by three fielding errors by the Mules. DeLucia struckout three.
Salisbury State’s Stacy Slater limited Muhlenberg to just four hits in the contest and struckout three batters in the process. Slater improved to 13-5 on the season.
Salisbury State will play Roanoke College at 1:00pm on Sunday afternoon for the right to go to the NCAA Division III softball national championship round. Should Salisbury State win the 1:00pm game, the two will meet again at 3:30 on Sunday afternoon.