KUTZTOWN, PA –
Bri Garber (Willow Street, Pa./Lampeter-Strasburg) hit a ball to short in the bottom of the seventh, and
Annamarie Hartman (Phoenix, Ariz./Xavier Prep) raced home with the winning run when the throw over to first was high, giving West Chester a walk-off 2-1 win over East Stroudsburg in the NCAA Atlantic Region Championship Game Saturday afternoon at North Campus Field.
West Chester (34-14) captured its third straight Atlantic Region title as a result of the walk-off win and advances to the NCAA Division II Softball Championships in Denver, Colo. at the end of next week.
"I still can't believe it," West Chester head coach
Diane Lokey said afterwards. "I think, with everything we went through this year – not knowing if we would even have a season, to the weekly testing, just everything these ladies have been through, this is probably the sweetest of the three."
The Golden Rams took care of business in the first game to claim the regional crown. West Chester finished the regional unbeaten having won four games in four days. East Stroudsburg (29-16) staved off elimination in the regional three times this week to reach the final. However, right-handed senior hurler,
Jen Hanshaw (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley) was once again outstanding inside the circle.
Hanshaw (19-4) picked up her fourth win in as many days, allowing just a solo home run to the second batter of the game. She scattered six hits over seven innings, striking out four. She did not walk a batter. In fact, Hanshaw has yielded a free pass in only one of her last 27 innings pitched, dating back to the PSAC Championship Game.
"Jen really stepped it up this week," Lokey said. "Every year, it seems a senior tells themself, 'If this is gonna happen, then I've gotta do it. Nobody is gonna do it for me.' I haven't talked to Jen about it, but that's what it seems she did."
Reilly Vicendese put the Warriors on top early with her first home run of the season. West Chester rallied back with the equalizer in the third. Garber started things off with a two-out single, followed by a single from
Madison Melvin (Tabernacle, N.J./Seneca).
Jaime Klemas (South Brunswick, N.J./South Brunswick) then singled down the left-field line, plating Garber with the tying run.
That's the way things stood til the Golden Rams' final at bats. Hartman led off with a single to left.
Grace Aguilar (Frederica, Del./Lake Forest) then flew out to the warning track in left, but Hartman was able to tag and make it to second safely. Following the second out of the inning, Garber hit a 1-0 pitch to short that East Stroudsburg's shortstop air-mailed to first. Hartman scurried home to score the game-winner as a result of the errant throw.
Garber finished the day 2-for-4 with a run scored. Melvin, Klemas and Hartman each had a hit as well. The Golden Rams scored two runs on five hits and did not make an error. The Warriors scored one run on six hits with the one fateful error.
East Stroudsburg right-hander Marah Range (15-6) was the hard-luck loser in the circle. She surrendered two runs – only one of them earned – on five hits. She walked three and struck out one.
