ALLENTOWN, Pa. - The Haverford College softball team went undefeated on the opening day of the Centennial Conference tournament to advance to the conference final for the second straight season. The second-seeded Fords began their tournament stay with a 5-1 victory over third-seeded McDaniel College and then capped the full day of games with an 8-5 win over top seed, and tournament host, Muhlenberg College.
Haverford (26-9) faced the top strikeout pitcher in all of Division III in the opener but the Fords were undeterred by the challenge as they moved out to a 5-0 lead after three innings of play. Junior Jill Schnall showed McDaniel right-hander Caroline Brehm that she was in for a long day as Schnall led off the bottom of the first with her team-leading ninth home run of the season.
Dayle Comerford, Jen DiCandilo and Lauren Touey all registered RBI-singles during the five-run outburst.
Brehm, who entered the contest with over 300 strikeouts on the season, did not surrender a hit over the final three innings but the Fords would not need any more offense as sophomore Sara Tauriello (9-1) tossed a complete-game gem against the Green Terror (25-14). Tauriello scattered six hits and struck out eight on the way to her 20th career victory.
Touey finished with two of Haverford's six hits in the opener while Schnall scored two runs.
The Fords' bats heated up in the second game of the day as eight of the nine batters in the lineup registered at least one hit against Muhlenberg (24-12). Haverford notched 15 total hits in the contest with three hits each by Comerford, Kristin Tatum and Stephanie Wolfson. Comerford also drove in a career-high four runs in the game.
Early runs were again a factor as the Fords followed a four-hit, three-run first inning with three more runs on three hits in the second. The opening surge resulted in an early exit for Mules' starter Heather Porrini (10-7) who was relieved by Kelsey Jones in the second.
Jones kept Haverford scoreless in the third and the fourth frames but the Fords added two more runs in the fifth on RBI-singles by Julie Garlick and DiCandilo.
Muhlenberg pulled within three (8-5) in the seventh before freshman Kendall Chambers earned her third career save by closing out the contest for starter Emily Winesett (11-2).
The Fords matched the program record for wins in a season with the victory that puts Haverford one win away from its second Centennial softball crown.
Muhlenberg and McDaniel will meet at 10 a.m. on Sunday to decide the Fords' opponent in the ensuing championship tilt. A victory by Haverford in the second game of the day would give the Fords the conference title and the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament while a loss would force a winner-take-all seventh game of the tournament.