GETTYSBURG, Pa. – The Haverford College softball team was topped by Gettysburg in both ends of its doubleheader on Saturday afternoon to close the regular season. However, thanks to a two-game lead entering the final day of the regular season and a Franklin & Marshall win in extra innings, the Fords are headed back to the Centennial Conference Tournament.
Haverford will be making its fourth straight trip to the Centennial Conference Tournament. This year's senior class is not only the winningest in program history, but also stakes its claim as the first in program history to make the postseason in each of its four years. The Fords will travel to top-seeded Washington College next Friday in Chestertown to open up postseason play.
In Saturday's opening game, the Fords took a 1-0 lead in first inning, but nine unanswered runs from the Bullets allowed them to take game one. Six of those nine runs came in the bottom of the sixth inning to put the eventual run-rule into place. Julia Blake and Kaitlyn Guild started Haverford's first inning with a single and double. Blake came home on an error by the third baseman to make the score 1-0.
The Bullets took the lead in game one with five hits in the bottom of the second inning which led to their first two runs. A two-out RBI double in the third made the score 3-1 in favor of Gettysburg. Haverford threatened to at least tie the game in the fifth inning with a pair of two-out singles before the potential tying runs were stranded. Gettysburg completed the game one victory with six runs, capped by a grand slam, in the bottom of the sixth.
Although the Bullets did not get any huge innings in game two like they did to close out the opening game, the hosts scored in five of their seven times at-bat. That consistent production put the Bullets up 4-0 heading into the seventh inning.
In the top of the seventh, the Fords rallied for five runs to take the lead. Jessica Koshinski started things off with a single, while Miwa Wenzel and Kendall Chambers were both hit by pitch to load the bases. Emily Gorman followed by roping a single down the right field line to bring home two runs. A three-run blast from Alex Craig – the first of her career – cleared the base paths and gave Haverford a 5-4 edge heading into Gettysburg's half of the seventh. However, the Bullets got their own power surge in that half of the inning with a leadoff home run before a two-out single scored the game-winning run after the bases were loaded up by a hit by pitch and two walks.
The Centennial Conference Tournament opens on Friday and will continue through Sunday in Chestertown, Md. Second-seeded Gettysburg and third-seeded McDaniel will join the Fords and Shorewomen in the double-elimination tournament.