Box Score - Photo Gallery
By Bryn Swartz, GoMessiah.com reporter
Salem, VA — The third game of the 2011 NCAA Division III Softball Championships was one of attrition.
Sadly for Messiah fans, DePauw University didn't blink first.
The Tigers used a pair of solo home runs — one in the eighth inning and another in the 10th — to scratch and claw their way to a 2-1 victory over the Falcons, snapping a 14-game Messiah winning streak on the opening day of the double-elimination tournament at the James L. Moyer Complex in Salem, Virginia.
“I thought we played well today,” said Amy Weaver, Messiah head coach. “I thought it was a great game. We didn't do anything that cost us the game. We hit the ball well, we fielded the ball well … (DePauw) is a great hitting team. They made some great defensive plays to rob us of some hits. It was what a championship game should be like.”
Weaver went with junior ace Jess Rhoads as her starting pitcher, an easy decision considering the fact that Rhoads had three days to rest after the team defeated Keuka College to win the Ithaca College Regional Monday afternoon.
Rhoads pitched seven strong shutout innings Friday, walking none and striking out nine. DePauw's nine hits were the most Rhoads had ever allowed an opponent in her three years in a Messiah uniform, but she somehow kept the scoreboard clean. The Dillsburg, Pa. native allowed leadoff singles in the first, second and fourth innings, but managed to retire the side without allowing a run all three times.
“Jess had one of her most effective pitches that wasn't working, and that didn't help,” Weaver said, “so they were getting some hits on the pitches she was throwing. But she's just a winner. She's a fighter. She's been injured all season and she hasn't had her best stuff, but she finds a way to shut teams down. It's remarkable.”
In the top of the sixth, Rhoads allowed a leadoff double to DePauw's cleanup hitter, senior Emma Minx. Rhoads induced a popup and a strikeout but junior Holly Paris singled to center field.
It was then that junior centerfielder Jacklyn Merkel threw a laser to sophomore catcher Taylor Hatt, who blocked the plate and tagged Paris out at home to end the inning and preserve Rhoads' shutout.
Unfortunately for the Falcons, they couldn't muster a run through the first seven innings against Tigers' hurler Emily Bichler.
Merkel belted a two-out double in the bottom of the first, which was followed by a walk from Rhoads. But sophomore Stephanie Schell grounded into a fielder's choice, ending the threat.
Perhaps Messiah's best chance came in the third stanza, when freshman Sara Seneca led off with a single and advanced to second on junior Ashley Lehman's sacrifice bunt. Seneca advanced to third on a throwing error, but the inning ended when Merkel hit a rocket to the shortstop, who calmly tossed the ball to the third baseman to double off Seneca.
“Jaclyn hit that a ton,” Weaver said. “That gets through nine times out of 10.”
Unfortunately, it didn't. And when neither team had scored through seven innings, Weaver replaced the former All-American Rhoads with sophomore Jocelyn Hickey, who had turned in a pretty impressive season as the team's number two starter (13-2 overall, 1.36 E.R.A).
But in the top of the eighth, Hickey was tagged for a one-out home run by Minx, the game's first score. Hickey retired the next two batters but the Falcons headed into the bottom of the eighth needing a run to keep the game alive.
As has often been the case this season, Messiah came together and manufactured what it needed.
Sara Seneca flied out to left field for the first out, but Lehman hit a blooper just over third base, getting on for the third time of the afternoon. Classmate Abi Buchler sacrificed Lehman to second, putting the tying run in scoring position with two outs. Merkel stepped to the plate and collected arguably the biggest hit of the season — so far — blasting a game-tying double to the left field fence to score Lehman.
“(The decision for Buchler to bunt) was pure strategy,” Weaver said of the one-out sacrifice. “Jacki had really good at-bats every time. We knew if we could put Ashley on second, Jacki would give us a good shot. So we took our chances and bunted (with Buchler).”
With Merkel's timely hit keeping the game going, Hickey worked out of a jam in the top of the ninth, as she allowed consecutive singles to begin the inning. She retired the side on a fielder's choice, a pop up and a fly out.
In the top of the 10th, DePauw junior Jen Kosinski led off with a single. But Minx lined into a double play, wiping the slate clean for Hickey.
But just when things were looking up, DePauw's Halley Buchanan sent a charge into Hickey's next delivery.
Then Tigers' junior connected for a deep home run to center field, once again putting the Falcons in a do-or-die situation in the bottom of the frame.
This time, the magic ran out for the Falcons. Sara Seneca belted a one-out double but the Falcons couldn't drive her home, as Lehman popped out to second base and Buchler flied out to center field.
“Jocelyn felt bad, but it wasn't like we didn't have our chances. DePauw is a really, really good hitting team,” Weaver said of the Tigers' club that came into the game averaging 7.3 runs per. “Jocelyn is normally a starting pitcher for us, and she's a keep-you-in-the-game type of pitcher. We put her in a tough situation (in relief), but we had to shut Jess down.”
The defeat was Messiah's first in its last two trips to the NCAA Championships, and now places the squad in unfamiliar territory: If the Falcons hope to repeat their 2009 national title, they will have to do so from the consolation bracket, a tougher — yet not impossible — task.
“The girls' mentality was exactly where we wanted it going into this game, and we don't want to change anything going forward,” Weaver said. “Before today, we were looking at each game individually, and that's exactly what we're going to do from here on out. Sometimes you get the breaks, and sometimes you don't. Today we didn't, but that doesn't change our mentality going forward. It's still one game at a time. We're going to be focused on Eastern Connecticut State and worry about the next game after that.”
Messiah will face Eastern Connecticut (34-6) in one of Saturday's elimination games, as the Warriors dropped a heartbreaking, 8-7, extra-inning loss to Christopher Newport University in Friday's final game. The Falcons and the Warriors will meet at 1:30 p.m. Live Stats and Live Video will be available for the game.
