SALEM, Va. (5/22/15) – The Kean University softball program exploded for eight runs in the third inning to win a 10-4 elimination game over No. 15 Alfred University at the 2015 NCAA Division III Softball Championship on Friday. The Cougars will move on in the tournament and play at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
Kean ended the game with 14 hits. Senior Courtney Yard led the way individually; the pitcher earned the first-ever win for Kean at the NCAA Finals and struck out 10 batters. As the Cougar leadoff hitter, she led the club with three hits and scored two runs.
Emily Sabo (pictured left) tied the Kean single-season record with her 66th hit of the season, matching her hit total from last year and Megan Cegielski's number from 2013. Kean also matched the 1987 team's program record of 123 walks during Friday's game.
But it was the Saxons who took the early initiative and scored in their first turn at-bat. Sam Juaregui started the game with a ground ball single through the left side and advanced to second on a sac bunt. With two outs, Alison Wickwire brought in Alfred's first-ever run at the College World Series with a bloop single to center and staked her team to a 1-0 lead.
Sabo singled by dropping a perfect bunt down the thirdbase line in the second inning for Kean. Subsequently, she stole second and moved to third on an overthrow, but she was stuck 60 feet away from scoring when the inning ended as Kean's offensive frustrations at the World Series continued.
In the Cougars' next turn at-bat, Amanda Berezny smoked a linedrive to leftfield and Tiffany Varriello drew a walk, but Alfred pitcher Keri Keeler kept them off the scoreboard again.
Though she was again on the short end of a 1-0 score, through three innings Yard had struck out five Saxons and walked just one.
Yard finally ignited the Cougar offense in the third inning. The senior led off the frame by going the other way and lining a single into right field. Sabo then laid down a sacrifice bunt that not only did its job, but forced a poor throw that allowed Sabo to stay safe at first as well.
Emily Bissonnette was up next and she pushed a perfect bunt through the charging Saxon defense and ended up loading the bases with nobody out on the bunt single.
Freshman cleanup hitter MacKenzie Valeriani lined a RBI single into leftfield to bring home Kean's first two runs of the 2015 NCAA Finals. Her classmate Katie Garbarino walked to re-load the bases, and fellow freshman Cayleen Rizo scorched a double the other way to right-center to drive in two more runs.
Berezny hit another hard drive that went for an RBI and a sacrifice fly, making the score 5-0. With two outs, Tonianne DeMatteo, Yard, Sabo and Bissonnette strung together three consecutive hits that scored three more runs and left the score 8-1 after three full innings. Kean pounded out eight runs on eight hits in the frame after being shut out for the first nine innings of the Championship Tournament.
In the home half of the fourth, Rizo doubled just over the shortstop. With her on third and two outs, Varriello lifted an RBI single into right field to move the Cougar cushion to eight runs and force Alfred to score a run to stay alive in the fifth.
The Saxons were able to do that, and scratched across one unearned run that scored with two outs. Alfred added one more in the sixth to make the count 9-3.
In their half of the sixth, the Cougars added a final run of their own. Garbarino walked to start things and with two outs DeMatteo lined an RBI single to centerfield to put the difference back to seven runs. Wickwire homered in the seventh for Alfred that made the final score 10-4. Kean had a bit of trouble closing out the game via the run-rule but easily hung on for the regulation victory.
Sabo, Bissonnette, Rizo and DeMatteo all had two hits in the game for Kean. Yard led the team with three knocks and earned her 25th win of the season.
Click here to see a postgame interview with Yard, Rizo and head coach Margie Acker.
The Cougars (31-14-1) will move on in the Tournament and play another elimination game at 4 p.m. on Saturday against No. 4 Salisbury University.
Alfred ends the first World Series appearance in its program history with a 40-7 record.
