Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
WEST CHESTER, Pa. – Needing two victories over the four-time defending PSAC champions to advance, host West Chester University pulled out a pair of dramatic and heart-stopping, 5-4, wins in its final at bat each game to eliminate Lock Haven from the postseason tournament on a sunny and partly cloudy Saturday afternoon at the South Campus Complex.
West Chester (32-16) advances to the PSAC Tournament Championship round next weekend to be held at Bloomsburg, along with Cal and Bloomsburg, who both were taken to the limit on Saturday, but prevailed in their pods. Lock Haven (22-21), the defending national champions, most likely will not have the opportunity to defend that title when the regional field is announced on May 9.
Sam Ingersoll blasted a two-run, walk-off home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to lift the Golden Rams to the 5-4 triumph, forcing a second and deciding game. Nicole Cruts’ then provided the heroics in that tilt with a game-tying, leadoff home run in the top of the seventh. Ingersoll’s one-out, single to center field was the game-winning RBI later in the frame as West Chester finished off an identical 5-4 win.
The Golden Rams scored three runs in the top of the sixth and two in the seventh to erase a 4-0 deficit and come from behind in the final game. Stef Kerbacher started the rally in the sixth with a one-out single through the right side. Evelyn Anderson followed with a single to left, and Ingersoll then singled home Kerbacher for the Rams’ first run of the game. After Harbaugh struck out for the second out of the inning, Lock Haven’s second baseman booted a routine ground ball from Erin MacNamee that allowed Anderson and pinch runner Mandy Gerhart to score, making it a 4-3 ballgame.
Muth followed with a single up the middle that chased Lock Haven starter Sarah Morse. The Eagles called on reliable righty Becca Bailey (16-13), who got Lock Haven out of the inning. However, Bailey, who had surrendered Ingersoll’s game-winning home run in the first contests, was touched again in the top of the seventh when Cruts took her deep to lead off the frame and knot the score at 4-4.
Kelsey Rapp laid down a bunt out in front of the plate that Bailey could not get a handle on and reached first base. Kerbacher sacrificed her over to second and Anderson drew a walk. That is when Ingersoll stepped to the plate and blooped a liner into center that plated Rapp with the go-ahead run.
Freshman right-hander, Devon Utterback (2-2), pitched the seventh for her second win of the season. Utterback pitched four innings of one-hit, scoreless ball in relief of starter Brooke Muth. Utterback walked two, struck out two and hit a batter. Muth lasted three innings, yielding three earned runs on five hits. She walked one and struck out one.
Muth (16-9) picked up the win in the opener, relieving Utterback in the third inning and tossing 4.1 innings of relief. She allowed a pair of runs on four hits, walked one and struck out one.
Utterback ran into control problems in the third, walking the bases loaded and then walking in a run all with two outs. Lock Haven erased a 2-0 deficit with a pair of runs in that frame.
Harbaugh hit her seventh home run of the season in the bottom of the third to put West Chester back on top, 3-2. However, Lock Haven answered with a pair of runs in the sixth to take a 4-3 lead.
Ingersoll finished the doubleheader 4-for-7 with four RBI, including her 14th home run of the season. Kerbacher was 4-for-8 with a RBI.
All three top seeds in the three first-round pods of the 2010 PSAC Softball Tournament advanced to the championship round. Only West Chester had to win twice to advance. Cal and Bloomsburg each lost game one on Saturday, but rebounded for a win in the second game. Cal eliminated Indiana (Pa.) while Bloomsburg knocked out Kutztown.
West Chester travels to Bloomsburg on Friday, April 30. Its opponent in game one of that three-team, double-elimination championship round will be determined on Monday.
