EDWARDSVILLE, Pa. – Senior Teagan Bradley shut out Wilkes for the first four innings, but the host Colonels broke through with three runs in the fifth to hand the Rangers a 3-0 loss in the first-round game of the Landmark Conference Softball Championships Wednesday afternoon.
 
The remainder of the Championship will shift to Moravian University, the No. 1 seed in the tournament, and will be held from Friday through Sunday. On Friday at 3 p.m., the No. 5-seeded Rangers will take on the loser of the first-round game between No. 3 Susquehanna and No. 2 Catholic in the tournament's first elimination game.
 
Junior Haley Meierhofer went 2-for-4 for Drew, and with her second hit of the game – a third-inning single – she reached the 100-hit milestone for her career.
 
Senior Fran O'Kleasky finished 2-for-3 with a double for the Rangers (20-21) while classmate Delaney O'Donoghue was also 2-for-3.
 
Bradley (8-9) tossed a six-inning complete game, scattering eight hits, striking out four and walking none.
 
Mia Butka shut out the Rangers over the first 3 1/3 innings before Lauren DeMarco pitched the last 3 2/3 frames to earn the win for the Colonels.
 
Bradley allowed just one baserunner the first two innings before working out of a jam in the third. Wilkes loaded the bases with just one out, but Bradley escaped with a pop-out and strikeout.
 
The Rangers also threatened in the early going, putting two runners on base with two hits in each inning from the second through the fourth. Singles from O'Donoghue and Bradley put runners on first and second with just one out in the fourth, when DeMarco was called on to pitch. A groundout put runners on second and third, but DeMarco induced a pop-out to end the inning.
 
Wilkes loaded the bases on three straight one-out singles in the fifth, with the last batter reaching on a bunt. After Bradley coaxed a flyout to right that held the go-ahead run at third, Talia Piragas cleared the bases with a double to right.
 
O'Kleasky roped a leadoff double in the sixth, but it would turn out to be the only hit DeMarco would allow. She went on to retire the last five batters she faced.
 
The Rangers were making their first Landmark Conference playoff appearance since 2021 and their first in a non-Covid season since 2008.