Alfred University Claims First-Ever E8 Softball Title
Head Coach Olivieri Meets The Cooler
ALFRED, NY – Alfred University defeated St. John Fisher, 3-2, Sunday afternoon to earn the program's first-ever Empire 8 Conference softball championship.
AU junior second baseman
Dana Torchia (Pompton Plains, NJ/Pequannock Twp) belted a two-run double in the fifth to break a 1-1 tie and the Saxons held on for the victory. Freshman pitcher
Kerri Keeler (Jamesville, NY/Jamesville-DeWitt) picked up her third complete-game win of the championships, allowing two earned runs on seven hits, and was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
"It really hasn't sunk in yet," Keeler said after the game. "I am so proud of my teammates. I couldn't ask for a better team."
"We had such a good season" coming in to the tournament, "I had all the confidence in my teammates we could win it," said Torchia, a three-year starter and one of four Saxon captains.
By winning the tournament, AU (35-4) earns the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III championships, which begin next weekend. The NCAA will announce on Monday the pairings and locations for the four-team regional tournaments, scheduled for May 8-10.
Fisher (28-14), the double-elimination tournament's fourth seed, and AU, the top seed, were meeting for the third time in three days. Fisher won the opening matchup Friday (2-0) and fell to Alfred, 3-1, on Saturday, setting up Sunday's winner-take-all title game.
On Sunday, the Cardinals took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first.
Meghan Burns reached on a fielder's choice with two outs and came in to score on a double down the left field line by
Jennifer Knaak. The score stayed that way until the fourth inning, as Fisher freshman hurler
Lindsey Thayer, making her fourth start of the tournament, struck out seven Saxon batters in the first three frames. But with one out in the fourth, AU junior shortstop
Nicole Maher (Newark, DE/Caravel Academy) tied the game with one swing of the bat, lining a solo homerun over the left field fence.
Keeler set the Cardinals down in order in the bottom of the fourth, and Alfred went ahead for good in the fifth. After Thayer struck out the first two Saxon batters, junior outfielder
Samantha Jauregui (Lindsay, CA/Lindsay) walked and moved to third on a single by sophomore third baseman
Liz Thompson (Horseheads, NY/Horseheads). Torchia followed with a double to the right-center gap to score Jauregui and Thompson.
Fisher rallied in the sixth, opening the inning with back-to-back doubles by
Emma Savas and
Meghan Burns to make it 3-2. But Burns was stranded at second as Keeler got the next three batters on a lineout to right, a groundout to short and a strikeout. After a scoreless top of the seventh, Keeler set the Cardinals down in order in the seventh to set off a wild celebration on the Harrington Park infield.
Keeler struck out two and walked none to improve to 15-0 on the season. "I just threw what (AU catcher
Jasmine Picini) called. Jas was just amazing behind the plate," Keeler said.
Jauregui and Thompson (one run each), Torchia (two RBIs), Maher (solo homerun) and senior outfielder
Alyson Hampton (Oxnard, CA/Oxnard) each had a hit for AU.
Thayer allowed three earned runs on five hits, striking out 12 and walking one. Savas was 3-for-3 with a double and Burns 1-for-3 with an RBI double and run scored to lead Fisher.
Olivieri, who earned his 250
th career win at AU when the Saxons topped Ithaca in an elimination game Saturday, credited his players for bringing home the first-ever E8 crown for Alfred, which had come up empty in seven previous trips to the conference championships.
"I've been proud of these girls all year, the way they've overcome adversity with the injuries we've had. And even with the first loss (to Fisher Friday), we knew we could overcome it and win it all," Olivieri said. "This is a veteran group and they've created such a positive atmosphere."
Maher, a team captain, concurred. "We knew coming in (to the tournament) it wasn't going to be easy. Even after the loss, we fought through it, going inning-by-inning and one game at a time. It's an awesome feeling," she said.
Added Torchia: "Winning it all with a loss was great for us. It made us come back stronger," she said.
Alfred, the 18
th-ranked team in the nation, could host a four-team regional next weekend (May 8-10). The winners of the four-team double-elimination regional tournaments square off in eight two-team best-of-three Super Regionals the following weekend (May 15 and 16), with the Super Regional winners advancing to the Division III College World Series May 21-26 in Salem, VA.