BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Senior
Haley Meierhofer drilled a walk-off double and the Drew University softball team recorded its first Landmark Conference Championship tournament victory in program history, topping No. 4-seeded Susquehanna University in an elimination game on Friday at tournament host and top-seeded Moravian University.
The Rangers (24-18), who were four outs from elimination, will now take on No. 5-seeded Wilkes University in another elimination game on Saturday at 11 a.m. for the right to advance to Sunday's championship round.
Drew opened the day with an 8-0, five-inning loss to No. 2-seeded Catholic University.
The Rangers have now tied the fourth-highest victory total in team history. Their victory over Susquehanna marked the team's first conference tournament win since a 7-0 victory over DeSales University in the 2003 MAC Freedom Conference Championships.
With the game tied 3-3 in the bottom of the seventh, freshman
Sloan Walmsley stepped to the plate with one out to face Susquehanna reliever Brianna Jones, who entered the game at the start of the inning. Walmsley drew a seven-pitch walk before Meierhofer appeared to have reached on a bunt, but the ball was ruled dead in the box. She followed up on the next pitch, lining a shot into the leftfield corner that allowed Walmsley to zoom around the bases and cross the plate steps before the throw home.
Meierhofer and sophomore
Gabby Duran finished the game with two hits apiece while freshman
Izzy Wiemer drove in a pair of runs. In the circle, junior
Allie Porbansky fired a seven-hit complete game, walking two and striking out one.
The River Hawks (14-25) struck first, scoring twice in the first on two hits, a walk, and a hit batter. The Rangers plated one run in the bottom of the inning when senior
Olivia Magliacano led off with a double, stole third, and scored on a sacrifice fly from Wiemer.
Drew pulled even at 2-2 with some two-out lightning in the third, when Meierhofer doubled and scored on a single from Wiemer.
In the meantime, Porbansky (9-4) blanked the River Hawks from the second through the fifth, allowing just a pair of singles over the stretch. But Susquehanna went ahead in the sixth on a single from Maddy Devine and a two-out double from Amanda Amerman. But Porbansky escaped when she induced a pop-up back into the circle.
Freshman
Lorelei Lorentzen sparked Drew's rally in the sixth, when she worked a two-out walk. Junior
Karly Severinsen followed with a bunt single before Duran singled up the middle to score Lorentzen with the tying run.
Susquehanna put runners on first and second with two outs in the top of the seventh, but Porbansky got out of it with a pop-up to herself once again, setting up the dramatic finish.
Versus Catholic, the junior starting pitcher
Kaitlynne Streets blanked the Cardinals over the first two innings, leaving two runners on base in the second. But Catholic scored three runs apiece in the second and third innings, capped by a three-run homer from Hayden Hudson that made it 6-0. The Cardinals then scored a pair in the bottom of the fifth to bring the game to an end due to the Landmark Conference's mercy rule.
Streets pitched four innings before Duran worked two-thirds of an inning for the Rangers.
Drew and Wilkes will be meeting in the postseason for the second year in a row after the Colonels captured a 3-0 victory in last year's opening round. This season, the Rangers swept Wilkes at home back on March 29, winning 4-2 and 2-1.
