Maroon and Cream Headed to National Championship in Raleigh, N.C.
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ALMA, Mich. - For the second year in a row and the fifth time in school
history, Alma College softball has advanced to the NCAA Championships
by defeating Aurora 4-1 Sunday (May 15) in first round regional action
in Alma, Mich. Alma heads to the national tournament in Raleigh, N.C.,
as the nation’s number five seed and will face fourth-seeded Salisbury
at 1:30 p.m. Friday, May 20.
Due to rain on both Friday and Saturday of the regional, the seventh
and eighth games were moved to Sunday. Aurora defeated North Central
6-1 in the day’s first game to advance to the regional championship
against an Alma team that had taken a 2-1, 13-inning victory from them
the day before.
The rematch of the pitchers duel the day before turned out to be a more
offensive-minded affair as the Scots scored twice as many runs in half
as many innings. Senior Melissa Tavidian (New Hudson/South Lyon)
gave an encore performance of the masterpiece that she had thrown the
day before. Tavidian allowed just one hit, a solo home-run to
Caryssa Douglas in the sixth inning, and struck out six in seven
innings of work to earn the victory, as well as propel her onto the
All-Tournament team. Her counterpart, Taylor Peterson, who had
kept the Scots’ offense in check the day before did not fare as well in
the rematch. Peterson (27-2), who had pitched seven innings
earlier in the day to allow Aurora to advance to the championship game,
gave up four runs on 10 hits and one walk, and did not appear as sharp
as she had been the day before.
The Scots opened the scoring in the fourth inning with an RBI-single by
freshman Amy Gaudard (Mt. Pleasant) that score pinch-runner Andrea
Lunsted (Haslett) from second. The following inning the Scots
again got to Peterson as they scored on an RBI-single by Megan Knochel
(Pinconning) that scored Mary Pietsch (Rogers City) who had hit an
infield-single and then stole second.
The big blow came in the sixth when back-to-back singles by Harrington
and Gaudard followed by a walk to Missy Morcom (Chelsea) loaded the
bases. Eileen Butler (Vestaburg) came to the plate and broke out
of a funk at the plate with a two-RBI double to left that scored both
Harrington and Gaudard, and gave the Scots all the offense that
they would need. Butler finished the day 2-for-2 with a sacrifice
bunt as well.
Aurora would respond with a single run in the bottom of the sixth on
Douglas’ solo shot (her second off of Tavidian in as many days), but
that would be the only run, let alone hit that the Spartans would
collect.
In two games against Aurora, Tavidian (15-5) gave up only two runs on
four hits (three of them by Douglas) and struck out 19 in 20 innings of
work.
Harrington, Gaudard, Knochel, and Laura Bell (Walled Lake/Western)
joined Tavidian on the All-Tournament team as Alma had more honorees
than any other team in the field.
Posted: Sun, May 15th, 2005 at 3:21PM
