WESTMINSTER, Md. – Sarah Stokes (Towson, MD/Towson) doubled, homered and pitched all 10 innings to help fourth-seeded Gettysburg defeat host Western Maryland 6-5 in the first round of the Centennial Conference (CC) softball playoffs on Saturday.
In the second round, Muhlenberg's Liz Kostelnick drilled a two-run double in the bottom of the sixth inning to lift the Mules over the Bullets, 3-2.
Gettysburg will face Ursinus in an elimination game on Sunday at noon. The Bullets must beat the Bears once and Muhlenberg twice to earn their second CC championship in the past three seasons.
After playing 22 innings against Western Maryland during the week, Gettysburg stunned the top-seeded Green Terror in another marathon to open the postseason.
With the Bullets down 2-1 in the seventh, Stokes blasted a one-out, solo home run to knot the game at 2 and force extra innings.
In the top of the tenth, Gettysburg broke through on losing pitcher Samantha Abrams for the winning runs.
Jenna McRee (Norwich, VT/Hanover) was placed on second base by rule to start the inning and moved to third on a passed ball before Jenna Pabst (Boonton Twp., NJ/Mountain Lakes) reached on an infield single to put runners at the corners with no outs.
Adrienne Simmons (Douglassville, PA/Daniel Boone), who extended her hitting streak to a team-best 15 games in the opener, singled home McRee to break the tie and Mandy Wilson (McClure, PA/Indian Valley) followed with a two-run triple for a 5-2 Gettysburg lead.
Stef Mastropaolo (Rutherford, NJ/Rutherford) lofted a sacrifice fly to plate Wilson with the important sixth run.
Western Maryland rallied for three runs in its half of the tenth and had runners on second and third with two outs before Stokes retired Courtney Wunderlich on a ground out to end the game.
In game two, Gettysburg rallied for two runs on five consecutive singles in the sixth to take a 2-1 lead before the Mules answered.
Wilson, Mastropaolo and Emily Boardman (Rome, PA/Northeast Bradford) singled to load the bases in the Bullet sixth and Jen White (Quakertown, PA/Pennridge) followed with an RBI base knock to tie the game at 1.
Courtney Todd (Eagle, ID/Centennial) singled home Mastropaolo for a 2-1 lead, but Boardman and White were both thrown out at home on the ensuing sequence of throws to cut short the rally.
In the bottom of the sixth, Kristen Best and Becky Toth reached on errors to open the frame before Kostelnick ripped a two-run double to give the Mules a 3-2 lead.
Boardman finished with a team-high five hits on the afternoon for Gettysburg while Wilson went 4-for-8 to increase her team-leading hit total to 48, one shy of the program record.
| CC First Round |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
- |
R |
H |
E |
| Gettysburg (22-8) |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
- |
6 |
11 |
1 |
| Western Maryland (28-5) |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
- |
5 |
5 |
2 |
Sarah Stokes and Megan Procaccini; Samatha Abrams and Courtney Wunderlich. WP: Stokes. LP: Abrams. SO-BB: Stokes 4-2, Abrams 6-3. 2B: Stokes (G), Abrams (W). 3B: Mandy Wilson (G). HR: Stokes (G).
| CC Winners Bracket |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
- |
R |
H |
E |
| Gettysburg (22-9) |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
- |
2 |
11 |
5 |
| Muhlenberg (22-15) |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
x |
- |
3 |
4 |
1 |
Erin Taylor and Procaccini; Angela Tyson, Danielle DeLucia (6) and Meghan Woods. WP: DeLucia. LP: Taylor. SO-BB: Taylor 3-1, Tyson 3-0, DeLucia 2-0. 2B: Liz Kostelnick (M). 3B: Amanda Ibey (M).
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