DENVER, CO.- On the heels of one of the biggest and most exciting comebacks in program history to lead West Chester (40-21) a 7-6 victory over UC San Diego, West Chester will now square off against Young Harris College (43-19) with that contest set to begin at 1:30 p.m. local time and 3:30 p.m. eastern.
Despite being no-hit until the fifth inning of play, the West Chester University softball team never flinched beginning its calculated comeback during the fifth inning thanks to an RBI single from Annamarie Hartman (Phoenix, Ariz./Xavier College Prep), which plated Naiya Murrey (Boyertown, Pa./Boyertown) to trim the deficit to four. West Florida answered back with a run of its own during the home half of the fifth, which re-extended the lead to five runs at 6-1. After a big sixth inning proved costly to the Golden Rams a night ago, it was West Chester's turn to use a big sixth inning to turn the tide as the Golden Rams scored four runs beginning with a historic home run off the bat of Emily Maseth (Westminster, Md./Westminster) as she became just the third Golden Ram in team history to hit a home run in the National Finals before Jaime Klemas (South Brunswick, N.J./South Brunswick) registered an RBI single and Emily Kim (Bel Air, Md./C. Milton Wright) worked a bases loaded walk to trim the deficit to 6-4 before Bri Garber (Willow Street, Pa./Lampeter-Strasburg) drove in a run via an RBI groundout to cut the lead down to just one run heading to the seventh. In the seventh inning, UC San Diego threatened to extend its lead once more after having the first two runners of the inning reach but luckily West Chester remained unfazed as the Golden Rams worked out of trouble to keep the deficit at just one run heading to the home half of the seventh. In the home half of the last, Klemas recorded another single that eventually courtesy of a throwing error by the right fielder plated another run to even the score at 6-6. Eventually, with Courtney Stump standing on third and Tori McCoach (Langhorne, Pa./Conwell-Egan) at the plate, West Chester completed its amazing comeback off a fielding error from the shortstop to earn the 7-6 victory.
Reilly Gearhart (Lancaster, Pa./Manheim Township) got the start in the circle and lasted just 1.2 surrendering two runs on three hits while walking a pair before being lifted in favor of Maegen Kavanagh (Easton, Pa./Easton). Kavanagh tossed the next 4.1 scattering four runs on three hits while walking four and striking out a pair to keep West Chester in the game late. Ultimately, sophomore Jen Hanshaw (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley) earned the victory in relief as she tossed the final inning of regulation shutting down the Tritons offense to allow West Chester to pick up the victory in the home half of the inning.
This victory was the Golden Rams first victory in the NCAA Division II Softball National Finals since 2014 when West Chester defeated LIU-Post in Salem, Virginia by a final of 6-2. This is also a sizable improvement over the Golden Rams performance in the National Finals a year ago as the Golden Rams failed to score a single run in that appearance, thus, sending West Chester home with a record of 0-2.
This afternoon's matchup will be the Golden Rams first known matchup against the Young Harris Mountain Lions with the winner advancing to the final game of the day against Augustana who is currently a perfect 2-0 in need of a victory to keep its season alive for another day.
Young Harris enters this afternoon's contest with a 1-1 record as well after opening the Tournament with a convincing win over LIU-Post before falling to Texas A&M Kingsville on day two of the Tournament yesterday afternoon. Young Harris enters the National Finals after playing to a record of 5-1 through its Regional Tournament including a pair of victories over its ever dangerous rival North Georgia before sweeping Lincoln Memorial in the Super Regionals to earn its spot in the National Finals.
Inside the circle, head coach Kayla Lucas turns to a pair of talented arms in Nikkie Kovalsky and Louisa Disi who enter with records of 29-12 and 13-5, respectively. Kovalsky possesses a solid 1.87 ERA while Disi enters with a slightly higher ERA coming in at 2.12 on the season. Kovalsky also has 26 complete games and 11 shutouts to her credit entering this contest, which is another statistic that she will surely be looking to continue to improve upon against the talented and dangerous West Chester lineup.
Offensively, the Mountain Lions own a respectable .301 team batting average, however, only three of the Young Harris starters possess a batting average north of .300 on the season as opposed to six for West Chester. Emily Harris leads the way in batting average as she enters play batting .354 on the season with a team-high 80 hits while also scoring 38 runs and plating 23 more. Jill Torres and Morgan Curley are the other two Young Harris starters to bat above .300 on the year batting .351 and .342 on the year, respectively. Torres also leads the squad in RBI with 51 on the season while her nine home runs rank second on the team just ahead of Haylie Shope who has 10 long balls on the season entering this afternoon's contest. Curley is the runs scored leader for Young Harris as she has crossed the plate a team-high 40 times this season while also leading the team in doubles with 17 doubles on the season.
With a win this afternoon, West Chester will improve to 41-21 overall while also improving to 2-1 in the National Finals for the first time in the Golden Rams illustrious program history. This 2-1 record would be put to the test against a talented Augustana team that enters play with a perfect 2-0 record in the final game of the once again with first pitch in that contest set for 6:30 p.m. local time.
