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Loretto, PA – It was a
red letter day in Loretto.
Saint Francis U scored nine runs in the second inning and never looked back on its way to capturing a fourth straight NEC softball title with 12-4 win in five innings over LIU on its home turf.
The top-seeded Red Flash won all three of their tournament games, outscoring opponents by a 21-5 margin, to improve to 40-8 on the year. The 40 wins tied SFU for the third-most in league history.
SFU became the first team to win four straight NEC championships since RMU's four-year reign from 1991 to 1994.
SFU sophomore and NEC Pitcher of the Year
Grace Vesco was named the Tournament MVP after posting a 2-0 record with a 0.47 ERA over three appearances, including a no-hitter in the tourney opener on Friday. She allowed just five hits over 15.0 innings and struck out 19. Vesco came on in relief in today's win, throwing a scoreless fifth inning. She enters NCAA Tournament play with a 0.82 ERA on the year and has permitted just one run and nine hits over her last 42.0 innings of work.
With the game scoreless heading into the bottom of the second, the Red Flash amazingly scored all nine of their runs with two outs on eight hits, a walk and a hit by pitch.
Senior outfielder
Brittany Crawford started the scoring spree with an run scoring single and sophomore catcher
Madeline Barnes followed with an RBI double to make it 2-0 in the favor of the Flash.
LIU (27-9) pulled starting pitcher Haley Irvis at this point, inserting graduate student
Tallie Woodson, but the All-NEC pitcher would not get out of the inning.
The barrage continued when senior third baseman
Mekenzie Saban beat out an infield hit to score Crawford. After sophomore shortstop
Jordan Pietrzykoski was hit by a pitch to load the bases, freshman designated player
Lexi Hernandez drove in the fourth run of the contest with a single to left. Junior first baseman
Allyn Bezjak continued her hot hitting, singling in two more as SFU extended the lead to 6-0.
Senior second baseman
Tayven Rousseau then supplied the biggest hit, a three-run shot to left that made the score 9-0.
A single by senior outfielder
Jordan Frank spelled the end of the afternoon for Woodson, who was replaced by senior
Victoria Lowe.
Trailing by nine, LIU wasn't about to go quietly.
Graduate student outfielder
Patricia Griffin put the Sharks on the board in the third on a RBI single and junior second baseman
Camryn Lyman knocked in another run on a fielders choice to pull LIU to within 9-2.
The Sharks sliced two more runs off the deficit in the fourth when senior
Ryleigh Bermea launched her fifth homer of the season, a two-run shot to centerfield.
However, SFU answered right back in the bottom of the frame with back-to-back homers to make it 12-4.
Bezjak hit a two-run bomb to right-center and Rousseau smacked her second of the game, a line shot over the leftfield fence that closed out the scoring.
SFU sophomore and first team All-NEC hurler
Rachel Marsden earned her 14th win of the season. She went allowed four runs and four hits over 4.0 innings and struck out two.
Bezjak and Rousseau both drove in four runs on the day. Bezjak finished the tournament with two homers and a tournament-high eight RBI. Rousseau's two dingers pushed her team-high total to 10 on the season.
Saban wrapped the tournament going 6-for-10 from the plate and now has 13 hits in her last five games and an NEC-best 74 on the year.
In her first taste of NEC Tournament play, Hernandez went 7-for-11 with four runs and three RBI over three games.
Avila was the top hitter during LIU's run to the Championship Saturday, going 4-for-7 with two homers and five RBI.
The Red Flash will now await their NCAA destination. The selection show is set to air on Sunday at 9:00 pm on ESPN.
NEC All-Tournament Team
Grace Vesco, SFU (MVP)
Allyn Bezjak, SFU
Lexi Hernandez, SFU
Mekenzie Saban, SFU
Maya Aviila, LIU
Kiani Cisneros, LIU
Camryn Lyman, LIU
Kaitlin Paterson, CCSU
Bri Walker, CCSU
Alyssa Gonzalez, SHU