Bracket / Tournament Updates
QUAKERTOWN, Pa. - The Slippery Rock University softball team earned its first postseason win in 40 years with a thrilling 11-10 victory over the Atlantic Region's No. 1 ranked team, East Stroudsburg University, in the opening round of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Tournament Wednesday at Veterans Park in Quakertown.
The win snapped an eight-game postseason losing streak and marked the first postseason win of any kind for The Rock since May 6, 1983 when they defeated Shippensburg 7-0 in the first round of the PSAC Tournament.
The win extends Slippery Rock's single-season wins record to 29 and improves the team to 29-22 on the year. SRU advances in the winner's bracket and will face Shippensburg Thursday at 10 a.m. in the second round of the double elimination tournament after the Raiders took down Seton Hill 15-10 Wednesday. ESU, which was receiving votes in this week's national poll and was ranked No. 1 in the NCAA regional rankings this week, falls to 36-15 overall and will head to the loser's bracket.
Slippery Rock and East Stroudsburg combined for 16 walks, 23 hits, 22 strikeouts, five home runs and three errors in a wildly entertaining game that had a bit of everything.
The Rock jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second inning with a two-RBI single from
Arielle Brown highlighting the inning. ESU got one back in the bottom of the second with a solo home run from Jada Smallwood to make it 3-1 heading to the third.
SRU plated one more run in the top of the third when
Anna Villies hit her first career home run to extend the lead to 4-1, but ESU answered with its own run in the bottom of the frame to make it a 4-2 game heading to the fourth.
Slippery Rock tacked on one more run in the fourth with a bases loaded walk to extend the lead to 5-2 before the Warriors stormed back to take their first lead of the day. SRU walked five batters and committed one error in the bottom of the fourth and ESU capitalized to score five runs and take a 7-5 advantage heading into the fifth frame.
After an empty fifth inning,
Alexsa Hurd started what would be the deciding frame in the sixth inning for The Rock by belting a two-run homer to knot the score at 7-7 with no outs on the board.
Cami Fisk and
Aubrey Mansfield followed Hurd's at-bat by reaching base on back-to-back singles before
Julia Montie came to the plate and belted a home run of her own to score three runs and give Slippery Rock the lead once more at 10-7.
Emma Kennedy stepped the plate after Montie and sent a solo shot to center for back-to-back home runs to extend SRU's lead to 11-7, capping a six-run rally in the top of the sixth inning that featured three home runs.
East Stroudsburg answered in the home half of the sixth with three runs of its own to cut the Slippery Rock lead to just one run, 11-10.
Hurd, who came on to pitch in relief of starter
Kelsi Anderson with two outs in the fourth inning, slammed the door by striking out the side in the bottom of the seventh inning to preserve the win, improving to 12-4 in the circle in the process. She finished the game with seven strikeouts in 3.1 innings pitched, allowing two earned runs on five hits. Anderson allowed seven total runs, only three of which were earned, in 3.2 innings of work with seven walks and five strikeouts. Five of ESU's 10 total runs were unearned in the game.
SRU was led at the plate by Montie, who went 2-for-3 with two runs and three RBI. Brown was 2-for-4 with a run and a pair of RBI while Hurd rounded out The Rock players to register multiple RBI with two.
Kennedy, Mansfield and Villies each drove in one run apiece, while Fisk went 3-for-4 at the plate.
The Rock's home run derby put on by Hurd, Kennedy, Montie and Villies tied for the second-most single-game home runs in program history and marked the second time this season that SRU belted four homers in one game.
Paige Zigmund was the pitcher of record for ESU after surrendering 10 runs, nine of which were earned, on 11 hits with seven strikeouts and six walks in 5.1 innings pitched. Abigail Weirich led the Warriors' offense going 2-for-3 with three RBI.
Slippery Rock will look to stay in the winner's bracket with a 10 a.m. showdown Thursday against Shippensburg, which won two games Wednesday against PSAC West schools with a 6-2 win over Gannon in the opener and a 15-10 win over Seton Hill later in the day.
To stay up to date with all that happens at The Rock, follow our official athletic communication accounts on Twitter (@Rock_Athletics), Facebook (RockAthletics) and Instagram (RockAthletics).
