6:00 p.m. - Firestone Stadium, 2nd Round
#1 Briarcliffe College - 3, #8 Penn State Beaver - 1
Penn State Beaver staked claim to a 1-0 lead in the first inning off of top-seeded Briarcliffe starter Jillian McGovern, but the Bulldogs settled in and grabbed a 3-1 win over the eighth-seeded Lions to advance to the winner's bracket semifinals in the 2013 USCAA Softball National Championships.
McGovern surrendered three consecutive one-out hits in the top of the first, including an RBI single from Sidney Brinton to grab the lead for Beaver, before calming herself and retiring 18 of the next 21 batters. The Lions mustered only two hits after the first inning, including a one-out triple by Nicole Bowersox in the third, but could not push across the run.
Meanwhile, Briarcliffe took their first and final lead in the bottom of the third on one swing. Lyndsay Coppola smacked a two-run double to deep left field to score McGovern and Emily Mazzaro for a 2-1 advantage.
Briarcliffe added an insurance run in the sixth as Raina Bunai took an outside pitch over the right-center field fence for a solo home run and a 3-1 Bulldog lead. Bunai finished 2-for-3 on the day, matching McGovern's 2-for-3 effort. McGovern had two RBIs and a run scored while pitching a complete game in the lowest scoring game of the tournament to date. She struck out five while scattering five hits and walking none in seven innings of work.
Beaver's Korey Freyermuth nearly matched her foe on the mound, giving up three runs on eight hits in a complete game loss. Freyermuth walked only one, but did not record a strikeout--however, her teammates played flawless defense behind her, not commiting an error in 27 chances.
Briarcliffe will meet four-seed Iowa Wesleyan at 10:00 a.m. at Firestone Stadium on Tuesday, while Beaver meets three-seed WVU Tech in the loser's bracket second round at 10:00 a.m. at the Firestone Stadium Pony Field.
