Cougars Advance to Final Day of ECAC Softball
Championships
PITTSBURGH, Pa. (5/11/07) - The Kean University
softball team advanced to the final day of competition at the
Eastern College Athletic Conference Southern Championships after
winning two of three games on Saturday afternoon.
The sixth-seeded Cougars (23-14) opened play with a 1-0 victory
over third-seeded Washington and Jefferson College in the play-in
game, as junior Kara Schultz (Clinton, N.J.)
scored the game-winning run on a RBI single by junior catcher
Vicki Lanza (Edison, N.J.) in the top of the
seventh inning.
In their second game of the afternoon, La Roche College scored
the game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning for the
3-2 victory. The Cougars took a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning
on a two-run homerun by sophomore second baseman Sara
Steinman (Springfield, N.J.), before the second-seeded
Redhawks rallied to advance to the winner's bracket. With her
seventh homerun of the season, Steinman 
broke the single-season record set a year ago by junior
Katy McManus (Edison, N.J.).
Kean bounced back in the final game of the day, as they defeated
top-seeded Westminster College, 2-1, in eight innings to send the
number one seed home after the first day of play. In the top
of the eighth, rookie Allison Thibault (Garfield,
N.J.) scored the game-winner on a misplayed suicide
squeeze attempt. Earlier in the game, sophomore Jesse
Buchanan (Washinton Twp., N.J.) scored the first run of
the game as the Cougars had three straight singles in the first
inning.
On the mound, sophomore Meg Gierke (Glen Gardner,
N.J.) went the distance in all three games, as she
improved to 17-8.
The Cougars face the loser of the La Roche College/Penn
State-Behrend game tomorrow afternoon. First pitch is
scheduled for 2 p.m.
