Ashley Iannone, Gettysburg
Box Score
WESTMINSTER, Md. – Seniors Ashley Iannone (Great Meadows, N.J./Blair Academy) and Emily Hall (Reston, Va./Flint Hill School) picked an opportune time to connect on their first home runs of the season as their fifth-inning blasts helped Gettysburg College secure a 5-3 victory over Haverford College in the opening game of the Centennial Conference Softball Championship.
Gettysburg (29-12) advances to face host and top seed McDaniel College (27-10), which defeated Muhlenberg College (16-17) 8-0. The Bullets and Green Terror will play in Saturday's second contest around 1:30 p.m. Muhlenberg will meet Haverford (24-9-1) in the first game on Saturday at 11 a.m.
Haverford scored the first run with back-to-back doubles by Jessica Koshinski and Lauren Touey to lead off the bottom of the first. Freshman Aileen Reilly (Huntington Station, N.Y./St. Anthony's) kept the Fords from doing any more damage by stranding the next seven runners. After issuing a walk to load the bases in the fourth, Reilly scooped the next ground ball and tossed to first to put down the threat.
Sophomore Jamie Abell (Glenn Dale, Md./Elizabeth Seton) put Gettysburg on the board with a bases-loaded single through the left side in the top of the second. The Bullets loaded the bases again in the third, but a double play and strikeout left the score tied.
In the fifth inning, junior Steph Zengel (High Bridge, N.J./North Hunterdon) reached on an error and came around to score on a double by classmate Meghan Hisgen (East Northport, N.Y./Commack). Iannone followed up with her first home run in two years over the fence in left-center. Two batters later, Hall's line-drive shot plunked the scaffolding in center field to make it 5-1.
Haverford answered with its own home run in the home half of the inning. After a lead-off double by Dayle Comerford, Kristin Tatum lifted a shot past the left-field fence to make it 5-3.
Despite placing runners in scoring position in its final two at bats, Gettysburg was unable to pad the lead. The Fords were unable to close the gap, however, with Reilly capping the day with a pair of groundouts to the right side of the infield.
Iannone finished 3-for-3 with a run and two RBI. Abell posted two hits and an RBI, while Hisgen went 1-for-2 with a run, RBI, hit-by-pitch, and a walk. Abell's two hits put her into a tie with Zengel for the second-most base hits in a single season by a Bullet with 60, just one behind all-time leader Jackie Pareso '05. Senior Melissa Tighe (Little Falls, N.J./Mount St. Dominic Academy) added a hit and a stolen base and now sits just one short of the program's career hits record of 189 held by Joy Hallfors '13.
Reilly allowed three runs on 13 hits and one walk while striking out three. She improved to 16-2 overall this season and took over sole possession of third place on the program's single-season wins list.