May 4, 2012

Box Score vs. Saint Joseph's (L, 4-1)

Midwest Region Tournament Central | Updated Printable Bracket

Allendale, Mich. - The opening day of the NCAA Midwest Regional #2 Tournament in Allendale saw a pair of close contests, as Saint Joseph's knocked off #19 Grand Valley State 4-1 on Friday afternoon (May 4). In the opening game of the day, Ashland rallied and held off Bellarmine by a 2-1 score, setting up an interesting day of games on Saturday (May 5).

GVSU (44-14) was able to muster just five hits off of Saint Joseph's pitching staff, as the Pumas (35-19) tallied three runs in the second inning and an important insurance run in the fifth frame. In the opener, Ashland's Emlyn Knerem allowed just one base hit - a solo homer - but tied a career high by recording 17 strikeouts in a dominating performance. The Eagles are now 41-15, while Bellarmine slipped to 32-28 on the year.

Saturday's first game will feature the winners from both games on Friday. Ashland will be the visiting team and face the home team, Saint Joseph's, at 11:00 a.m. In game two, Grand Valley State will be the away team, while Bellarmine is the home team in a game scheduled for a 1:30 p.m. start. The home-visitor designations for Saturday were decided by coin flips. The final game on Saturday will start at 4:00 p.m. and match up the losing team of game one against the winning team of game two. Sunday's championship game starts at 12:00 p.m.

Saint Joseph's struck early off of Laker junior Hannah Santora, who walked the leadoff batter in the inning, Kristin Paris. Audra Rains singled up the middle and was followed by a walk to Rachel Weaver, loading the bases with no outs. Two batters later, after Santora retired a groundball out forcing the runner at home, Amy Varner grounded out to second base and drove in the game's first run. With runners on second and third base and two outs, Kylie Weeks reached on an infield error, with both runs scoring on the misplayed groundball, giving the Pumas a 3-0 cushion.

The Lakers scraped together a run in the third inning after sophomore Miranda Cleary led off with a hard single up the middle. She moved to second on a throwing error after senior Carli Raisutis laid down a sacrifice bunt, but was safe at first. Another sacrifice bunt - this time from senior Maggie Kerrigan - moved both runners up a base. GVSU cashed in when sophomore shortstop Briauna Taylor drove in the run on a groundball to the second baseman, scoring Cleary to cut the deficit to 3-1.

In the top of the fifth, Saint Joseph's extended its lead back to three runs, as Rains doubled to right center field, scoring Shawn Hoskins, who singled to lead off the inning. The Pumas led 4-1 at this point and were in the driver's seat the rest of the game. Grand Valley State had just two hits after the fourth inning, both of which were singles. In fact, all five Laker base hits on Friday were singles.

SJC's Megan Ramey pitched five innings and allowed four hits and the one unearned run. She earned the victory, moving to 16-9 on the season. Ramey fanned three Lakers and did not walk a batter. Sarah Franklin entered in relief of Ramey in the sixth inning and gave up just one base hit in two innings in the circle for her fourth save of the year.

Santora took the loss for Grand Valley State, falling to 23-5 overall. She allowed four runs (two earned) on six hits in seven innings. The righthander walked four batters and struck out five Pumas. Calkins was the lone Laker with more than one hit, as she was 2-for-3.