After a disheartening loss yesterday, the St. John Fisher College softball team returned to form today, eliminating King’s College from the NCAA tournament with a 4-3 win at Kostrinsky Field in Ithaca, NY.
Fisher (31-11) will take on the loser of the Rochester/Keuka game at 4 p.m. today in another elimination game.
Clinging to a one-run lead with two runners on and just one out in the bottom of the final inning, freshman first baseman Carissa Carlson turned a quick double play to end the game. After the Monarchs cut what had been a 4-2 Fisher lead down to one with a leadoff double and RBI single in back-to-back at-bats, King’s Becky Loring lined out to Carlson who tagged the runner for the unassisted double play.
Jamie Harmon brought in two runs with a double in the first inning to get the Cardinals going, and picked up her third RBI of the game in the third inning to give Fisher a 3-0 advantage.
King’s came through with a single to start the fifth and followed it up with a shot to center that put runners on second and third with no outs. The Monarchs used a sacrifice fly to advance the runners and get on the scoreboard, and capitalized on a Fisher fielder error to make it 3-2.
After Kristi Bradley’s RBI double pushed the Cardinals’ lead to two runs, 4-2, in the top half of the seventh, King’s got to within a run and put the tying run on base before the Cardinals locked up the win.
Amanda Shevchuk allowed just two earned runs and one walk in the complete-game effort.
Meghan Graves, Bradley, Harmon and outfielder Samantha Vara each picked up two hits in the win.