BANGOR, Maine – The No. 20 Husson University softball dynasty is alive and well after the Eagles defeated SUNY Poly 4-3 on Saturday afternoon at O'Keefe Field in the North Atlantic Conference championship game, sending the team to the NCAA tournament and pushing its win-streak to 30 games, tying the longest winning-streak by any team in Husson history.
Junior Kiara McLeod put Husson (35-4) in front in the home-half of the second inning, as she ripped a triple into right field and scored freshman Lyndsee Reed, who pinch ran for the Eagles earlier on in the inning.
Poly (26-10) was able to keep itself in the game through the first three innings behind the strong pitching of Trinity Critelli, who had thrown over 300 pitches in the Wildcats' first three games of the tournament heading into Saturday's contest.
Freshman Josie Cornell extended the Husson lead to 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth, as she sent a single back up the middle and plated fellow freshman Camryn King from second base. Cornell would find her way home later on in the inning, as McLeod posted her second extra-base, RBI-hit of the contest with a double into the left-center field gap, making the score 3-0 in favor of the Eagles.
Poly didn't go away quietly, as the Wildcats used an RBI-single to right field and a two-RBI double to center field to knot the game up at three heading into the bottom of the sixth.
McLeod did as she had done all day to lead-off the inning for Husson, as she blasted her third extra-base hit of the contest into center field and gave the Eagles a lead-off runner in scoring position with the top of the order lingering.
Following a sacrifice bunt from sophomore Lydia Rice to move McLeod over to third and just one out in the inning, graduate student Katie Raymond stepped up to the plate.
Raymond layed down another bunt with the hope of scoring McLeod from third, but a heads-up play from Critelli in the circle allowed the Wildcats to get the lead-runner out and keep the game tied up, but the play was not over. The savvy base running of Raymond advanced her to second base on the throw to the plate and the veteran outfielder would come across to score the eventual winning-run after an errant throw from the Poly catcher to try to get Raymond out at second was sent into the outfield with nobody backing up the throw.
Freshman Ana Lang, who came on in the sixth inning to relieve sophomore Danielle Masterson, struck-out all three batters in the top of the seventh to secure the 4-3, championship-win for the Eagles.
McLeod posted three of the seven hits in the game for Husson, in addition to junior Bulla McCabe, senior Julia Gregoire, Cornell and Rice also tallying base-knocks.
Masterson did not allow a base runner in her first four innings of work in the circle, striking out nine of the first 12 batters she faced. The sophomore finished her day with 5.2 innings pitched, allowing three runs on five hits and no walks, adding 11 total strikeouts. Lang closed-out the final 1.1 innings, surrendering just one hit and punching out four of the five batters she faced.
McLeod, Masterson and Lang were all named to the all-tournament team for the Eagles, while senior Kenzie Dore was named the most valuable player of the tournament.
Husson will find out its opponent, game time and regional location for the upcoming NCAA Division III tournament on Monday during the NCAA selection show, which is scheduled for 11 a.m. and can be viewed on the NCAA website.
