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 Katy Hackett, Charlotte |
May 7, 2008
Charlotte, N.C. - Fordham, Charlotte and Saint Joseph's all advanced in the Atlantic 10 Softball Championship with victories on the opening day at Charlotte's Phillips Softball Complex. Due to the chance of inclement weather on the second day of the A-10 Championship, Thursday, May 8, the game times have been moved up. The first game of the day pitting Massachusetts against Fordham will begin at 11 am. The St. Bonaventure-Charlotte game will be played at 1:00pm. Saint Joseph's will conclude the day against an unknown opponent at 3:00pm.
Fourth-seed Fordham (34-28) defeated the fifth-seed Saint Joseph's, 1-0, in the first game of the tournament. The story of the game for both teams was the pitching of Fordham's Allison Twarowski and Saint Joseph's Dani Gonzales. Twarowski recorded her 12th win of the season after scattering four hits with five strikeouts and no walks in seven scoreless innings on the mound. Gonzales nearly matched Twarowski with four hits and only one run in six innings with five strikeouts.
Fordham scored the game's only run in the fifth inning when Jocelyn Dearborn, who reached base on single to left field, scored from second base on Meghan Shager's single to center field.
Saint Joseph's had its best scoring chance in the top of the fourth inning when Erika Rosenwinkel, who reached base on a single to left field, advanced to third base behind a passed ball and an infield ground out. But she was stranded at third base when Gonzales fouled out to the catcher to end the inning.
"Allison Twarowski gave us a great effort on the mound today," Fordham coach Bridget Orchard said. "Our hitters just kept putting the ball in play and if you keep putting the ball in play good things will happen. You have to give our team credit they stuck with it and we finally were able to get a run across in the fifth inning."
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Fordham advanced to play top-seed Massachusetts in the first game of the second day of the A-10 Championship on Thursday, May 8, at 11am.
In the second game of the Championship, the host team, third-seed Charlotte (33-29), defeated sixth-seed Saint Louis, 1-0. The story of the game was again pitching with Charlotte's Katy Hackett and Saint Louis' Stacy Gillette. Hackett recorded her 15th win of the season by scattering three hits over seven scoreless innings. Hackett recorded seven strikeouts to set the Charlotte's single-season strikeout record with 172 strikeouts. Gillette allowed one run on five hits with seven strikeouts over five and two-thirds innings of work.
Charlotte's Serena Smith was the only person in the first two games of the tournament to collect more than one hit as she finished the game with two hits.
Charlotte scored the game's only run after Jenny Rumbles, Sarah Malene and Whitney Williams reached base to start the sixth inning. Smith singled to right field scoring Rumbles with the game's only run.
Saint Louis best scoring chance came in the top of the sixth when Rachel Heet, who reached base on a walk, stole second and third. She was thrown out at the plate trying to score on Katie Johns fielder's choice.
"We got an incredible pitching performance from Katy Hackett," Charlotte coach Aimee DeVos said. "We also did a great job running the bases and our speed on the bases made a big impact on today's win. Serena Smith came through with a big RBI scoring the game-winning run. It was a very tough game."
The 49ers advanced to face second-seed St. Bonaventure in the second game of the second day of the Championship on Thursday at 1:00pm.
Saint Joseph's and Saint Louis concluded the first day of Championship with the tournament's first elimination game. Saint Joseph's (19-22) defeated Saint Louis (23-33-1), 4-1, behind Erika Rosenwinkel's two-run home run to advance to the second day of the Championship. Saint Louis saw their season end with the losses to Charlotte and Saint Joseph's.
Saint Louis' Heet, Rachel O'Connell and Brittney Schmidt each recorded two hits in the game. While Saint Joseph's Dana Bieniek and Rosenwinkel each tallied two hits as well. Rosenwinkel finished the game with three RBI.
Saint Louis scored the game's first run when Kristen Nicoletti, who reached base on a fielding error, scored on Heet's sacrifice fly to left field in the top of the first inning.
Saint Joseph's tied the score when Laura Cardone, who reached base on a bunt single, scored on Brooke Darreff's sacrifice fly to left field in the bottom of the first inning.
Saint Joseph's took the lead for good in the third inning when Bieniek, who reached base on a single to left field, scored on Rosenwinkel's double to center field.
In the fifth inning, Saint Joseph's put the game away behind Rosenwinkel's two-run home run over the center field wall.
Saint Joseph's Gonzales scattered five hits with five strikeouts over four scoreless innings in relief to tally her 12th win of the season.
"Dani Gozales did a great job for us in the circle," Saint Joseph's coach Terri Adams said. "She came into the game and got some big strikeouts for us. Lauren Gognini also did a good job pitching for us today. On offense, Erika Rosenwinkel came up big with her two-run home run that pushed us over the top. Hopefully, we will make more noise in the tournament tomorrow."
With the win, Saint Joseph's will now play the third game of the second day of the tourney against an as yet to be determined opponent on Thursday at 3:00pm.
