Post loses to Saginaw in softball Series

C.W. Post saw its sensational softball season come to an end Saturday as it lost to Saginaw Valley, 2-0, in an elimination game in the NCAA Division II World Series in Salem, Va.

Saginaw scored both runs in the second inning and Jade Fulton pitched a one-hitter with 15 strikeouts and a walk. Kerry Fisher singled to right with one out in the bottom of the seventh to end Fulton's bid for a no-hitter, which would have been the second in College World Series history.

Christina Berardi gave up three hits and a walk and struck out five in a complete game for the 25th-ranked Pioneers. Both runs were unearned.

"It was a great pitching duel and both of them were great," Post coach Jamie Apicella said. "[Fulton] was mixing speeds, doing a phenomenal job keeping us off balance. We got a couple kids on base but we couldn't capitalize. I think it was a great game; just didn't work out for us."

Fulton, who is 30-10 with a 1.18 ERA, notched her 400th strikeout of the season in the third inning.

C.W. Post finished the season 41-16. Saginaw (41-17), which advanced to face North Georgia, earned its first College World Series win. The Pioneers had faced elimination after losing, 7-0, to UC-San Diego on Thursday.

"We're a very young team," Apicella said. The Pioneers have just two seniors. "We had a veteran pitching core with Berardi and Sarah Kiser, but there's a lot of youth on the team. The inexperience hurt us in the first game, but I felt we overachieved as a program this year and played quality softball to get us here."

Post lost in the regionals in 2010 and Apicella said the team's goal this year was to get to the World Series, "and we did a good job fighting through tough teams to do it."