WAYNE, N.J. (5/4/14) – The No. 24 Kean University softball team fell in the 2014 NJAC Championship Game to No. 22 Rowan University on Sunday. The scores were 4-2 (in eight innings) in game one and 7-0 in the final game.

Game One

Courtney Yard struck out the first two hitters of the day in dominant fashion and worked a 1-2-3 first inning.

Megan Cegielski – normally a slapper - led off the home half of the first with an opposite-field drive off the left-centerfield wall. It went for a double and missed a homer by just a couple feet. After two outs and a walk to Sandra Binkiewicz, yesterday's heroine Kelly Moorehead strode to the plate.

The senior shortstop hammered a few pitches foul as she battled Rowan starter Krysti Maronski. With two strikes, she flipped an outside pitch into rightfield for a go-ahead RBI single that staked Kean to an early 1-0 lead.

With one on and one out In the second, Cougar secondbaseman Emily Sabo snared a grounder, tagged the runner going to second and threw to first for the inning-ending double play.

Tonianne DeMatteo led off the Kean second with a single up the middle and the Cougars put two runners in scoring position in the inning after Jill Martin was hit by a pitch but could not get another run across.

With the help of a leadoff error, Rowan put two runners in scoring position with two outs in the fourth. Meagan Lee delivered a two-RBI single – Rowan's first hit of the game - to give the Profs the lead but DeMatteo, Martin and Sabo combined 7-2-4 to gun her down at second base to end the inning.

Through the first five innings both Yard and Rowan reliever Beth Ann Ryland were on point. Neither had allowed an earned run and combined for nine strikeouts.

In the sixth, it was Moorehead's time to turn two, as she fielded a grounder up the middle, stepped on second and fired to first to end the inning.

In the bottom of the frame, Binkiewicz led off with a single to centerfield. Yard sacrificed her to second, and Moorehead came through with another clutch basehit to drive in her second run of the game and send the game to the seventh knotted at two.

Yard struck out the final batter of the Rowan seventh to send the Cougars to the dugout with a chance to win the championship if they could scratch across a run.

Amanda Berezny led off the frame with a single down the rightfield line. With two outs, Sabo singled to put runners on the corners and the Championship-Winning run 60 feet away. An intentional walk loaded the bases but Ryland got a groundout to send the game to extra innings.

Jennifer Arcella knocked a two-out RBI double to rightfield in the top of the eighth and Ashley DeYoung added another RBI single to put the Profs up two runs.

Game Two

Sabo singled in the top of the first for Kean, but Alysa Romero made a great over-the-shoulder catch in short centerfield to end the inning. DeYoung and Romero then popped back-to-back homeruns in the first inning for the Profs, giving Rowan an early 2-0 lead.

Cegielski made a great turnaround catch up against the rightfield wall in the second to keep that frame scoreless for the Profs, but Rowan put up another two-spot in the third to go up 4-0.

Junior reliever Rebecca Rotola induced an inning-ending 1-2-3 double play to keep Rowan at bay in the fourth. Her counterpart Maronski pitched well in the first five innings; she allowed just one hit and struck out a batter an inning in that time.

Moorehead made a pair of nifty plays at shortstop in the bottom of the fifth, scooping a tough in-between hop on one and ranging far in the hole to get the force at second on the other. DeMatteo capped the frame with a nice running catch to save a run and end the Profs' threat.

Romero hit her second homerun of the game in the sixth, putting Rowan on its way to its fifth NJAC Championship and first since 2002. A deep flyball to left ended the game and began the celebration for the Profs.

Kean will learn its NCAA Tournament future on Monday morning's NCAA Selection Show which can be found here