HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College softball team fell victim to a 1-0 walk-off in eight innings against second-seeded Dickinson on Friday afternoon. The Red Devils (23-16) got a no-hit shutout from Madison Milaszweski ahead of Kristen Acocella delivering a two-out RBI knock in the bottom of the eighth. Milaszweski's no-hitter was just the fourth in the history of the Centennial Conference Tournament.
With today's results, Dickinson will advance to the game six of the conference tournament where it will await the winner of Haverford and Swarthmore as those two rivals begin Saturday with an elimination game at 11 a.m. for the right to play in the championship. In addition to game five, the Fords or Garnet would have to beat the Red Devils in back-to-back games to capture the Centennial Conference Championship. Swarthmore used a three-run rally in the top of the seventh inning during its elimination game victory over Ursinus to eliminate the Bears from the tournament by a 6-5 final.
Despite being contested on the Class of '95 Field, Dickinson played this game as the home team and batted second after winning the coin flip. Haverford had its best chance of the game in the first inning as Julia Blake was hit by pitch and Nicole Swisher walked to put a pair of runners on base with nobody out.
However, from that point on Milaszewski retired 24 batters in a row before her side was able to scratch across a run against Temma Levis who was also up for the pitcher's duel. Haverford's hardest hit balls of the day came off the bat of Ashley Sisto as she had likely extra bases taken away from her by the right fielder and centerfielder during her first two at-bats.
In what was a rematch of the 1-0 Haverford win when Levis and Milaszewski faced off in the regular season, Friday's game saw Levis retire the first eight batters she faced before an error and single put two Red Devils on base in the third. Levis got out of that frame with a grounder to short before retiring nine of the next 10 batters.
The Red Devils put the potential game-winning run on base to start the seventh inning as the leadoff batter was hit by pitch before being bunted into scoring position. She was eventually stranded on third. The Red Devils started the eighth inning with just their second hit of the day as Marisa Fabbo doubled into the right centerfield gap. That runner was also sacrificed over to third base with just one out before Bridget Gutpelet singled on a 1-2 pitch back through the middle to plate the game-winning run.
Levis finished as tough luck loser in a battle of two of the conference's best pitchers. The Fords' junior captain went 7.1 innings and allowed just three total hits while striking out three. Milaszewski went eight innings and struck out eight while allowing a hit by pitch and walk to the first two batters of the game. She needed just 79 pitches to record the no-hitter.