Cortland ends Widener’s sweet softball trip
After five straight postseason wins the magic finally ran out for the Widener women’s softball team.
The Pride saw its first trip to the NCAA Division III tournament come to an end in a pair of losses to the host team in the Cortland Regional Sunday afternoon.
The Red Dragons took the first game in five innings, 102, and then scored a 7-2 victory in the winner-take-all game to advance to the super regionals.
Cortland (33-13) scored six runs on two outs in the second inning to break the first game open. Ericka Sadowski’s three-run double was the big blow in the inning. The Red Dragons then scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning in Game 2 and never looked back.
Olivia Rogers and Liz Antonucci knocked in the runs for Widener (28-13) in the opener. Antonucci added two hits and one RBI in the nightcap. Taylor Allen had the other RBI.
Allen and Ally Horvath were named to the all-tournament team. Allen batted .571, drove in three runs, had a .727 on-base percentage and a .571 slugging percentage in the regional. Horvath was the winning pitcher against Messiah, which lost in the national championship round last year, batted .308 and stole three bases in three attempts. NEUMANN FALLS IN REGIONAL SEMIFINAL >> A 1-1 afternoon was not good enough to get the Knights in to the final round at the Union Regional.
Neumann stayed alive with a 2-1 triumph over Mount St. Mary College from New York, but dropped a 5-1 decision to Christopher Newport in the regional semifinal.
Becky Guinto’s two-run homer in the third inning was the difference for the Knights (29-15) in the first game. Kara Grogan walked and Guinto slugged her tworun blast to left field to erase a 1-0 deficit. Winning pitcher Haley Broomell and reliever Jen Sieminski combined to allow just two hits the rest of the way.
Grogan and Guinto collected two hits apiece against CNU, but it was not enough to offset the four runs the Captains put on the board in the fourth and fifth innings.
Women’s Lacrosse
Cabrini hung tough for a half, but fifth-ranked Franklin & Marshall was too much for the Cavaliers in the second half Sunday.
The Diplomats scored eight times in the second half to cruise to a 17-7 victory over Cabrini in the second round of the NCAA Division III playoffs.
F&M tallied the last seven goals after Cabrini’s Jess Bruening cut the deficit to 10-7 with 25:33 to play in the game. The victory sends F&M (17-4) into the Sweet 16 against No. 10 Trinity.
Siobhan Burke led the Diplomats with three goals and one assist. Gabby Frank and Maddie Hughes also tallied three times for F&M.
Bruening and Liz Hoeffner paced Cabrini (16-4) with two goals each. Allie Vallen added one goal and two assists, while Sasha Wozniak and Avery Murphy contributed one goal and one assist apiece.