Behrend Softball Falls to Ramapo to Open NCAA Tournament
The Penn State Behrend softball team
lost its opening game in the 2008 NCAA Tournament by a score of 4-1 versus
Ramapo on Thursday, May 8 at Ithaca College in New York.
In the bottom of the first, #2 seed Ramapo went ahead 1-0 on Lauren
Cascino’s two-out solo homerun to left field. Junior pitcher Julie Koman (McKees
Rocks/Montour) avoided further trouble by ending the inning with a strikeout
for #7 seed Behrend.
The score would remain 1-0 till the bottom of the third inning when Ramapo
added two more runs on three hits, as Marliee Farmer’s single drove in both
runs, giving the Roadrunners a 3-0 lead. Nikki Kaschauer (South Park/South
Park) got the first hit for the blue and white in the top of the fourth with
a two-out single to center field. Ramapo got a ground ball to end the
inning to keep its three-run advantage.
In the fifth,
Lindsay Baughman (Warren/Warren) made solid contact driving a ball deep into
right field before it was tracked down by Ramapo’s Brittney McKeon, robbing
Baughman of an extra-base hit.
In the top of the sixth, Michelle Zill (Fairview/Fairview) hit a grounder
through the shortstop to get on first with Behrend’s second hit of the game.
Maddie Wieser’s (Erie/Collegiate Academy) ground ball then advanced Zill to
second. Katie Whitby (Tyrone/Tyrone) hit a long shot that had base hit
written all over it, but the threat was snagged by the Roadrunners for the
second out of the inning. With one out left, Allison Babish
(Coraopolis/Montour) crushed a ball to the third baseman but could not beat
the throw and Ramapo escaped the inning with its 3-0 lead intact. The
Roadrunners would bring in another run in the bottom of their sixth,
increasing their lead to 4-0 going into the seventh.
Nikki Kaschauer (South Park/South Park) started the seventh by reaching on
an error and advanced to second on a Lauren Lubic (Bridgeville/South
Fayette) groundout to first. Baughman would eventually come to the plate
with two outs and hit a shot past the shortstop that was scored as an error
which drove in Kaschauer to put the blue and white on the board, trailing
4-1. Ramapo (34-10) would close out the game by getting the next batter out
and ending the Behrend Lions rally.
Behrend (33-13) will now face #3 seed Rochester (28-11) on Friday, May 9 in the
double-elimination tournament. Game time is set for 12:00 p.m.
Rochester was defeated 2-0 by Bethany in an earlier Thursday game. The winner
of the Behrend/Rochester contest will move on to play on Saturday and the losing
team will be eliminated from the regional.