Alfred Tops Fisher to Force a Winner Take All Final on Sunday

5/2/2015 2:50:16 PM

Championship Webpage | Box Score 

The Alfred University softball team, fresh off a 1-0 win over Ithaca earlier Saturday at the Empire 8 Conference championship tournament, defeated fourth-seeded St. John Fisher College, 3-1, setting up a winner-take-all championship game Sunday afternoon.
 
Alfred and Fisher will meet at 1 p.m. Sunday, with the winner earning the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III championship tournament. 

Alfred took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third when sophomore Sophia Chiavatti led off with a double. A batter later, senior Samantha Jo Muller, running for Chiavatti, came home on an error.
 
Fisher knotted the game at 1-1 an inning later when Emma Savas singled with two outs and came in to score on a double by Danielle Ventrone.
 
Jasmins Picini blasted a fifth-inning homerun just inside the left field foul pole to break a 1-1 tie off Fisher starter Lindsey Thayer to make it a 2-1 game. The Saxons added an insurance run later in the inning when junior catcher Nora Passuite doubled and scored on an error with two outs.
 
Alfred senior pitcher Alison Wickwire, squaring off against Thayer for the second time in two days, got the win. Wickwire, allowed a run on five hits while striking out two. Thayer, who tossed a shutout in beating Wickwire and the Saxons, 2-0, on Friday's opening day of action, took the loss. She allowed three runs (one earned) on four hits and struck out seven.
 
Wickwire (double), Picini, Chiavatti and Passuite had Alfred's four hits.

Megan Burns (double), Ventrone, Katie Mazierski, Savas and Kate Disbrow had hits for Fisher.