Muhlenberg and Swarthmore both advanced to the NCAA Softball Regional finals on Friday, with the Mules moving on the winner's bracket and the Garnet needing two more wins to claim the regional crown.
In Medford, Mass., Muhlenberg (34-11) defeated two nationally ranked NESCAC teams - Middlebury and Tufts - to advance to the championship game of the NCAA regional. Muhlenberg will face the winner of Saturday morning's elimination game between Middlebury and Tufts. If the Mules win, they will claim the regional title and move on to face the winner of the regional hosted by defending national champion Trine in the super regional round.
Should Muhlenberg lose on Saturday, the two teams would meet again in a winner-take-all game on Sunday.
The Mules overcame a 3-0 deficit in the first game to defeat 25th-ranked Middlebury, 5-4, on a bases-loaded single in the seventh by senior Scooter Hulsen, and plated three first-inning runs in the second game for all they would need in a 3-1 win against 18th-ranked Tufts.
After Middlebury hit a three-run homer in the second inning of the first game, freshman Eden Clark and junior Josie Krieman combined to allow only one earned run on eight hits in the next 12 innings.
Clark fanned eight in her five-hit complete game, improving to 15-5 on the season. Given a one-run lead in the top of the seventh, she hit the first batter in the bottom of the inning but struck out the next hitter on three pitches and retired the final two on harmless fly balls.
Krieman was brilliant in the second game against a Tufts squad that came in with a team batting average of .349 and averaging nearly seven runs per game. She allowed only five hits, walked none, and struck out four, with her own error leading to the lone run plated by the Jumbos (31-10). With the tying runs in scoring position, Krieman got the final batter of the fifth to fly out, then retired all six hitters she faced in the sixth and seventh.
The Mules won their first two NCAA Tournament games only once previously in their history - in their very first appearance in 1989, when they dropped their next two contests.
In Swarthmore, Pa., 14th-ranked Swarthmore fell to Case Western to open the day before staving off elimination with a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Muskingum on Friday in the NCAA Regional. The Garnet advance to Saturday's regional championship series for a rematch with the Spartans, who defeated Swarthmore in walk-off fashion, 9-8, earlier on Friday. The Garnet will have to defeat CWRU twice to capture the regional title.
Regan Valenzuela went 5-for-7 at the plate over the two contests with two walks and three runs scored. Linnaea Rasmussen and Avery McClure each tallied three hits. Rasmussen recorded a double, a walk, four RBI, and a run while McClure drove in two and scored twice. Lilly Goldberg tossed a complete game to earn the win versus Muskingum, allowing just one run. She became the first pitcher in program history to record 20 wins in a season.
