Kristin Cooper, Washington College
Fourth-seeded Washington College knocked off top-seeded Muhlenberg and #3 seed Haverford to take charge of the Centennial softball championship tournament Saturday in Allentown.
Washington College 3, Muhlenberg 2
Washington College 4, Muhlenberg 2
The Washington College softball team entered the 2013 Centennial Conference Softball Tournament as the fourth and final seed in the double-elimination field, but, after the first day of the tournament, is the only team remaining without a loss. Washington (25-16) knocked off top seed Muhlenberg (31-8-1), 3-2, in the Shorewomen's first game of the day before downing Haverford (24-12), 4-2, in a winners' bracket game that advanced the Shorewomen to tomorrow afternoon's championship round. The Shorewomen (25-16) will play the winner of tomorrow morning's Haverford-Muhlenberg elimination game at noon. If Washington wins that game, it will secure its first ever Centennial Conference Softball Championship. A loss would set up a "winner-take-all" seventh game of the tournament for the conference title at 2:00 p.m. Washington's win over Haverford completed an opening day of the tournament that saw the lower-seeded team win three of the four games and saw the defending conference champions eliminated. Haverford, the tournament's third seed, rallied to beat McDaniel, the two seed and 2012 champions, 3-2, in eight innings in the first game of the day. Muhlenberg then eliminated McDaniel with a 4-0 win in the losers' bracket elimination game. The win over Muhlenberg was the Shorewomen's first in their first game of a conference tournament in four all-time tournament appearances. Washington, which bounced back after losing its tournament opener last year to play McDaniel in the championship round, is now 4-1 in its last five Centennial Conference Tournament games after losing its first five tournament games.
Haverford 3, McDaniel 2
The Haverford College softball team succeeded in making its presence known at the Centennial Conference tournament as the Fords took down defending champion McDaniel College, 3-2, in the opening game of the day. Haverford fell 4-2 to Washington College in the final game of the first day of the two-day tournament. The Fords (24-12) found themselves in a 2-0 hole at the end of the first in the initial game of the tournament as Tracy Davis' two-run bomb to left center scored Ally Gallati who was on with a single. Haverford got one run back as it took advantage of some control issues by McDaniel starting pitcher Caroline Brehm (20-9) to manufacture a run in the top of the second. The score would remain at 2-1 until the top of the seventh when the Fords were able to get the equalizer. The two squads played a 10-inning affair during the regular season but the Fords ended this one quickly. Leading off the eighth with three straight singles, Haverford moved ahead for the first time in the contest. Dayle Comerford singled to right center and then Stephanie Wolfson sent her own single to left. Sophomore Lauren Touey completed the comeback with an RBI-single to center that scored Miwa Wenzel, who was inserted as a pinch runner for Comerford.
Muhlenberg 4, McDaniel 0
The Muhlenberg softball team has been making history all season, and to win the Centennial Conference championship, it will have to make some more. The top-seeded Mules (31-8-1) split two games on the first day of the CC playoffs, losing their opener, 3-2, to Washington College before staving off elimination with a 4-0 shutout of defending champion McDaniel. Muhlenberg will face Haverford again in another elimination game on Sunday at 10:00. The winner of that game will need to defeat Washington twice to claim the title. Since the CC playoffs began in 2001, no team has won the championship after losing its first game. Sophomore Kelsey Jones pitched both games for Muhlenberg and allowed runs in only one of 14 innings. She tossed a four-hit shutout against McDaniel, setting a school record with her 17th win of the season and tying another mark with her 20th complete game.