MAYFIELD, Ky. -- The Lady Scots took care of business on day one of the NCCAA Mid-East Region softball tournament Tuesday morning and afternoon as they routed 0-21 Ohio Christian University 16 to 0 and narrowly defeated 20-14 King College 2 to 1. The wins moved the Lady Scots to the finals of the winners' bracket where they will face Oakland City University (18-23) Wednesday morning.
In game one, Covenant faced the winless Trailblazers of Ohio Christian who have seen very little success this season: their average of less than 2 runs scored per game and more than 14 runs allowed per game has seen them come up far from short on many occasions. Starting pitcher Stacy Moody pitched 4 innings, struck out 1, walked 6, and gave up 16 runs on 17 hits. Her line-up also failed to produce as Chelsea Krafft, Sonja Townsend, and Beth Harris combined for a one-hit shutout.
Christine Core led the Lady Scots with 3 hits and 3 RBIs. Kim Cuticchia, Rebekah Marbury, Lindsey Potter, and Kristen Walker each added 2 hits. And the Lady Scots stole 9 bases as a team.
In Covenant's second match-up, the Lady Scots faced the Lady Tornado of King College, a team who reached 20 wins this year for the third season in a row.
The Tornado threatened in the bottom of the third with a one out triple to left-center by Aubree Hutt. But a failed suicide squeeze attempt two batters later allowed Lindsey Potter to throw out the speedy Hutt at the plate- a play that ended with Kim Cuticchia holding the tag as she was bowled over.
"It was like something you'd see on ESPN," stated Head Coach Sara Russell. "[Kim's play] really got our momentum going."
Indeed, in the ensuing Covenant at-bat, Morgan Booker reached on an error and was sent home with Courtney Wagoner's two-run homer (her team high third of the season).
A minor hiccup in the Lady Scots' defense in the bottom half let King get one of those runs back, but that was all they would manage. Chelsea Krafft (10-16, 3.29) pitched all 7 innings, gave up no earned runs, struck out 7 and walked none, and according to her coach, "pitched wonderfully." In fact, in the fourth and fifth innings, Krafft avoided damage by pitching around a one out, runner on second situation.
Natasha Dean's fly ball to left field in the bottom of the seventh effectively completed the upset and put the Lady Scots into prime position for winning the tourney and advancing to nationals.
After the game, Coach Russell spoke about the secret to their success, "All season, we've had 3 keys to victory: score first, do the little things right, and be mentally engaged. And today we did all three wonderfully."
The box score will show that the Lady Scots scored first, and that with the exception of a wild throw in the fourth, did the little things right, but there's nothing in the stats that show anything about a team's focus. Especially coming off an easy win, many teams find themselves overconfident or unable to maintain concentration, but what Coach Russell saw of her team was quite the opposite: "In between games, we went to warm up and you could just tell the girls were switching gears to get ready. Their mentality was so focused; they just knew it was a new game against a new opponent."
The Lady Scots are now 11-27, but ride a 4 game win streak and have won 11 of their last 15.
A victory Wednesday morning will put the them in the championship game where they would need only one victory over a two game span. A loss will square them again against King, in which case they would need a victory over King and two victories over Oakland City to advance to nationals. The Wednesday morning game will begin at 10:00am EST.
Tournament Bracket
