Garden City, N.Y. - A long day for the Adelphi University softball team came to an end with a pair of wins on Friday, as the top-seeded Panthers staved off elimination in the NCAA Tournament on home turf.
Adelphi (31-20-1), which dropped the first game of regional action to the eighth-seeded Caldwell Cougars in the first game of double-elimination regional play on Thursday, defeated Northeast-10 Conference foe Le Moyne in the first elimination game, 3-0, before exacting a measure of revenge on the Cougars in the nightcap, winning in walk-off fashion in a dramatic 10 innings, 4-3.
The Panthers rode the right arms of
Nicole Mengel and
Jessica Vadala in the pitching circle, as the freshman Mengel steered them to victory with a complete game shutout of the Dolphins in game one, as she matched up with NE10 All-Conference First Team selection Alexis Eastman.
Mengel scattered two hits and two walks over seven innings, striking out two, to bounce back from Thursday's outing against Caldwell where she surrendered six runs in just 1.1 innings.
Vadala put in the hard yards for Adelphi in game two, as she hurled all 10 innings - a new career-best - in the complete game, despite surrendering the tying runs in the fourth inning after her offense gave her a 3-0 lead. The junior, who had started just once in her previous 32 appearances this season, played with fire late, and worked around a total of 10 hits and four walks in the contest.
In the late innings of regulation, Vadala worked out of a bases-loaded situation in the sixth, with a strikeout of Anyssia Ramirez, and induced an around the horn double play in the seventh to help keep the game tied.
On offense, senior
Krista King went 5-for-9 with a run scored, setting a new Adelphi record in the process. The outfielder scored the 156th run of her career in the win over Le Moyne, breaking the previous school mark set by Samantha Johnston ('09). With her five hits, King also increases her total to 268 for her career - just two away from tying Johnston's other school mark of 270.
Nicoletta Cuccio and
Brenna Martini each had a pair of hits for the Panthers in game one, while
Kailah Konkel stroked a two-run triple in the third inning of game two which gave the Panthers a 3-0 lead at the time. However, the Brown and Gold walked off with some help from Caldwell, after three singles from
Lauren O'Neill, King and Martini loaded the bases in the bottom of the 10th.
After not having to deal with a runner in scoring position since the third inning, Caldwell starter Sara Bearden induced a ground ball off the bat of
Nicole Camera, but Cougar second baseman Katelyn Johnson charged aggressively in an attempt to stop the winning run, but the ball went off her glove -- leaving the Cougars with no play and the Panthers with a win.
The Panthers will face Long Island rival LIU Post for the right to advance to next week's Super Regional. The Pioneers were the advancing team out of the winners' side of the pod, having defeated Caldwell on Janet L. Ficke Field in the first of Thursday's contests, 10-2.
Adelphi will need to win twice tomorrow should it want to keep its season alive - but the Panthers did just that in the regular season against their local rivals, sweeping a doubleheader on Janet L. Ficke Field, 3-2 (12 inn.) and 6-2 on March 15.
About Adelphi Athletics
Adelphi University joined the Northeast-10 Conference in the fall of 2009, and in the past eight seasons, has collected 27 regular season conference titles, 29 tournament championships, 41 individual crowns and captured the Northeast-10 Presidents' Cup four times (2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017), while winning six NCAA Division II National Championships.
For the latest on Adelphi University Athletics, follow the Panthers at www.aupanthers.com or via social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Snapchat.
