ALFRED, NY – Alfred University and Rowan University will meet Sunday for the NCAA Division III softball championship regional championship on Sunday. The two teams met Saturday morning, with Alfred scoring a 1-0 victory, but Rowan bounced back with an elimination-game win in the afternoon, setting up a rematch with the Saxons.
In Saturday morning's winner's bracket contest between 12
th-ranked Rowan and 15
th- ranked Alfred, the Saxons took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, when senior
Alison Wickwire (Towanda, PA/Towanda) hit a two-out double to score junior second baseman
Dana Torchia (Pompton Plains, NJ/Pequannock Twp.) from first.
The run was all the support Alfred freshman pitcher
Kerri Keeler (Jamesville, NY/Jamesville-DeWitt) would need, as she shut the Profs out on two hits, striking out three to improve to 16-0 on the season. The win improved Alfred's record to 37-4, with the 37 wins tying the school single-season record set by the 2010 squad.
Rowan pitcher Beth Ann Hyland took the loss, allowing a run on six hits and striking out five over seven innings. Hyland kept the game close by stranding 10 AU baserunners, but fell to 18-5 on the year.
Junior outfielder
Samantha Jauregui (Lindsay, CA/Lindsay), freshman third baseman
Haley Powers (Newark, DE/St. Georges Tech) (double), Torchia, Wickwire (double), freshman outfielder
Shannon Schaefer (Westfield, NJ/Westfield) and senior outfielder
Alyson Hampton (Oxnard, CA/Oxnard) had hits for Alfred, which improved to 37-4 on the year. Jessica Phillips (double) and Alyssa Sims had Rowan's two hits.
After the AU-Rowan game, Lebanon Valley edged Penn State-Behrend, 2-1, in an elimination game of the loser's bracket. Lebanon Valley then met Rowan in another elimination game Saturday afternoon, with the Profs rallying for a 13-9 win to advance to Sunday's championship round.
Rowan plays Alfred at 10 a.m. Sunday. If Alfred wins, the Saxons will be regional champs. If Rowan wins, it will set up a winner-take-all regional title game at 12:30 p.m. The tournament winner advances to next weekend's Super Regional round, with eight winners of two-team best-of-three series will advance to the Division III College World Series May 21-26 in Salem, VA.