Cardinals Eliminated in NCAA Regional by Lebanon Valley College
The St. John Fisher College softball team saw its season come to an end on Sunday, with a 3-2 nine inning loss to Lebanon Valley College in the NCAA Regional round, hosted by Ithaca College. After winning two-straight elimination games, the Cardinals finish their season 35-14 with their second loss in the double elimination tournament.
The game was the third extra inning game played by the Cardinals in the last four contests, after the team took The College of New Jersey to 13 innings on Friday and Western Connecticut State to 10 innings on Saturday.
In the top of the 9th inning, Lebanon Valley’s Tessa Deardorff tripled with a runner on second to put her team ahead 3-2. The Cardinals were able to get runners on first and second with two outs in the bottom of the inning, but Jennifer Knaak was sent down swinging to end the Cardinals’ season. Olivia Fusilli reached after Lebanon Valley’s centerfielder dropped the ball, and Krista Robarge singled but Fisher couldn’t bring either home with the pinch hitter Knaak.
The Cardinals held a 2-0 lead up until the final inning when the Dutchwomen rallied to even things up. After Allie Hartman led the inning off with a double, she was replaced on by pinch runner Samantha Shimp who scored on a single up the middle. With no outs, the Dutchwomen tied things up at 2s on a throwing error by Robarge.
Fisher went up 2-0 after runs in the fourth and fifth inning. In the earlier inning, Meghan Burns, who was hit by a pitch, was scored on a left field single from Leanne Merchant. Pinch hitter Lauren Owens then doubled the Cardinal lead with an RBI single in the fifth inning, bringing home Christina Sakran. Sakran was on base after pinch running for Danielle Leone who opened the inning with a single.
Lebanon Valley held a slight advantage over the Cardinals, tallying seven hits to Fisher’s six. Each of the Fisher hits came from a different batter. Fisher pitcher Sarah Stefanon went all nine innings, fanning 14 batters and walking one.
Seven seniors will graduate for the Cardinals, with Sarah Fordyce and Stefanon ending their careers as Fisher single-season record leaders. On Saturday, Fordyce set a Fisher record with her 13th home runs of the 2013 campaign.
Stefanon, who pitch a complete game for Fisher, ends her senior season with a 24-7 record, setting both the single season wins record and the single season strikeouts standard. Her 24 wins ranks three higher than predecessor Amanda Herberger’s 21, while her 290 strikeouts beats Herberger’s former mark of 241.
With nine innings pitched on Sunday, Stefanon also ends as the single-season record holder with 222.0 innings thrown this season.
Merchant will end as Fisher’s all-time record holder in doubles (17) and RBI (47) – marks she set during the 2012 season.
Kayla Goodberlet ends her career with 197 hits and 124 RBI. Robarge finishes with a career-high 36 hits this season, while Lindsey Holtz (who transferred into Fisher for her final two years of play) ends the year with 10 hits and seven RBI.
Leone, who up until the end of the year was Fisher’s second pitcher, finishes 2013 as the Cardinals designated player. The senior totaled 19 hits in 56 plate appearances for Fisher.