Full Replay
DENVER, CO.-The West Chester University softball team (39-21) was back in action opposite the No. 2 team in the nation and the second-seeded team in the NCAA Tournament in West Florida (54-9). West Chester and West Florida have squared off already this season with West Florida prevailing in that matchup by a final score of 8-3. In this contest, it was a late inning surge by the West Florida offense that put the game out of reach once again as West Chester fell by a final score of 5-1.
In the top of the first, West Chester saw Annamarie Hartman (Phoenix, Ariz./Xavier College Prep) and Emily Maseth (Westminster, Md./Westminster) reached second and third with just one out, however, West Chester was unable to push any runs across to send the game to home half of the first even at 0-0.
In the top of the first, West Florida opened the game with a run off a fielders choice groundout to short, which gave the Argonauts an early 1-0 lead.
During the bottom of the second, West Florida used a ringing triple to straight away center field to double its lead and claim an early 2-0 lead heading to the third.
In the top of the fourth, West Chester snapped its 17-inning National Finals scoreless streak as Heidi McCollester (West Chester, Pa./Henderson) came on a rare West Florida fielding error off the bat of Jaime Klemas (South Brunswick, N.J./South Brunswick), which cut the deficit to just one making the score 2-1.
West Florida threatened during the home half of the fourth as the Argonauts loaded the bases with two outs but a ground out to Maseth allowed West Chester to escape the inning trailing by just one (2-1).
West Florida added another run during the bottom of the fifth to claim a 3-1 lead entering the later stages of the contest. Starting pitcher Maegen Kavanagh (Easton, Pa./Easton) responded very well as she retired the next three batters quickly to limit the damage to just one run and send the contest to the sixth inning with the score at 3-1.
In the top of the sixth, Klemas reached on a hard hit single to left to give WCU a base runner late in the sixth but West Chester was unable to push her across, thus, sending the game to the home half of the sixth with the Golden Rams trailing 3-1.
During the home half of the sixth, West Florida starting pitcher Grace Gilbert led off the inning with a double that dropped just inside the left field line to give the Argos an early base runner. West Florida worked a pair of walks to load the bases with no outs. West Florida extended its lead moments later after working a bases-loaded walk to extend the lead to 4-1. West Florida added another run via a wild pitch, which gave the home team a commanding 5-1 lead heading to the seventh.
In the top of the seventh trailing by four runs, West Chester threatened but failed to score any runs in the 5-1 setback.
Kavanagh (12-5) pitched well overall as she went five innings surrendering just six hits and fiveruns (only four earned) while walking three and striking out a trio as well. Kavanagh got into a jam during the bottom of the sixth after a leadoff double and a walk, which closed the book on the redshirt-sophomore right hander in favor of junior Reilly Gearhart (Lancaster, Pa./Manheim Township). Gearhart tossed the final inning in the circle and surrendered no runs while walking a pair in the setback.
Gilbert was impressive throughout the afternoon as she slowed down an extremely dangerous Golden Ram offense surrendering just six hits and one unearned run while striking out three to earn the victory and advance the Argonauts into the winners bracket.
"It just wasn't our day..." started West Chester head coach Diane Lokey, "we didn't get some of the timely hits that we needed and had some bad luck plays defensively, along with a unfortunate walks. Going down early did not really concern me immediately but as the lead started expanding I started to have some concerns." Lokey, Kavanagh, and junior Bri Garber (Willow Street, Pa./Lampeter-Strasburg) all echoed the same sentiment regarding bouncing back tomorrow as all three Golden Rams expressed confidence in their ability to rebound tomorrow, partially thanks to the fact that "we did hit the ball consistently today we just did not get those hits when we needed them the most" staged Garber and Lokey.
Garber was also complimentary of West Florida starting pitcher Grace Gilbert as she stated that "Gilbert spun the ball very well and did a good job of keeping us off balance throughout the afternoon. Additionally, her pitch selection was wide enough where once it got to two strikes she became even more challenging to hit."
West Chester will now have to wait for the results of the final game of the afternoon between Augustana and UC San Diego to ascertain who it will face in an elimination game tomorrow evening at 6:30 p.m. as the purple and gold will face the loser of the Augustana/San Diego contest.
