Dowling wins doubleheader to earn NCAA berth
Dowling's softball team roared back from the brink of elimination in the East Coast Conference tournament by sweeping a doubleheader yesterday from Molloy, 1-0 and 3-0, to gain an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Host Dowling won four straight games - all by shutouts - after dropping the first game to Molloy last Thursday in the double-elimination tournament. If that seemed like an uphill climb, the Golden Lions were up to the task.
"I think when you have a season where you win 19 in a row you think you can win four in a row,'' Dowling coach Debbie DeJong said of the team's streak earlier in the season. "I think you believe in yourself. I think it's tough [to come back], but if you are confident, you can win four in a row.'' Dowling (42-15) will learn its NCAA opponent tomorrow. Molloy (38-18) is also expected to receive a bid.
Jessie Stavola, voted the tournament's most outstanding player, and teammate Felicia Mendoza both pitched complete games against Molloy. In the second game, Dowling broke a scoreless tie in the fourth inning when first baseman Kristen Weeks hit a three-run home run over the leftfield wall. "I just swung and it went over,'' Weeks said. "I thought it was a line dive, I didn't think it was that much up in the air. We wanted to win so bad on our own field. We didn't want anyone to take it from us on our own field.''
Mendoza, who had thrown a shutout against NYIT in a must-win game on Friday, allowed two hits and struck out seven in the finale. She is 13-6. Mendoza loaded the bases with two outs in the first inning, but got Tiffany D'Aless- andro on a ground out to end the threat. "I struggled a little bit,'' Mendoza said. "I just had to be mentally tough. I had gotten myself into situations like that before. I knew we could get out of it.''
In the first game, Krystal Hoffman's bloop fly double to center in the fifth inning scored Kristina DeMeo for the game's only run. The run was scored off Kelley Jansen, who had relieved starter Megan Butterworth to start the fourth inning.
Stavola, who had thrown a nine-inning no-hitter against C.W. Post (still likely to gain an NCAA bid) a day earlier, had extended her string of no-hit innings to 12 before Jeana Frey reached on a bunt single in the fourth. Selected as the ECC pitcher of the year, Stavola ended with a four-hitter and raised her record to 18-4.
Stavola, a transfer from Connecticut, was the losing pitcher in the tournament's first game. "Yes, we made mistakes and yes, we didn't play our best,'' Stavola said of that outing. "But we know what kind of team we were. And we were going to come back and get it.''
