April 28, 2012
Softball Sweeps Its Way to No. 1 Seed
Game
One Box Score
Game
Two Box Score
SELINSGROVE, Pa. – Saturday’s sweep of Scranton by the
Susquehanna softball team handed the Crusaders the No. 1 overall
seed in the Landmark Conference Tournament and thus home field
advantage throughout the tournament.
SU (23-11, 9-2) used 2-0, 3-1 victories to clinch the sweep. The
Crusaders’ two starting pitchers –
Sarah Hoffman (Laceyville, Pa./Wyalusing
Valley) and Morgan Lewis (Newtown, Pa./Council
Rock North) – combined to give up only eight hits
and one run over the 14 innings of play.
Susquehanna will serve as host as the No. 1 seed while Moravian is
the No. 2 seed, followed by Scranton (23-7, 5-5) at the No. 3 seed
and Catholic is the No. 4.
The Crusaders used timely hitting in both games to clinch the game.
In the opener, Hoffman tossed all seven shutout innings and gave up
only three hits while striking out five.
The game was scoreless until Susquehanna pushed two runs across the
plate in the bottom of the sixth thanks to a two-base error by the
right fielder. Hoffman retired the side in order to end the
game.
Game two was much of the same as Lewis scattered five hits over
seven innings of one-run ball.
SU went ahead 2-0 in the second on hard RBI hits from
Kathryn Gilbert (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland
Valley) and Brittany Devlin (Furlong, Pa./Central
Bucks East).
The Royals got back one of those runs in the fourth before the
Crusaders tacked on an insurance run in the fifth when Lisa
Finizio (Oakland, N.J./Indian Hills) scored on
Alyssa Cantalini’s (Kitchener, Ontario/St. David
Catholic Secondary) hit to right field.
Lewis gave up just one hit over her final two innings of work to
pick up the win and clinch SU’s spot as the No. 1 seed.
Prior to the start of the second game, the team’s four
seniors – Sarah Dowzicky (Collegeville,
Pa./Germantown Academy), Courtney Miller (Kendall
Park, N.J./South Brunswick), Kate
Reese (Wellsboro, Pa./Wellsboro Area) and Finizio
- were honored in a pregame ceremony.
In addition, head coach Kathy Kroupa picked up her
200th and 201st career victories as head
coach of SU.
The tournament, hosted by SU, opens on Friday, May 4 and concludes
on Saturday, May 5. It is a double-elimination tournament.
