Garden City, N.Y. - The 2018 season came to an end for the Adelphi University softball team on Saturday afternoon, as the top-seeded Panthers fell to the hot bats of the fourth-seeded LIU Post Pioneers in the final game of the NCAA Division II East 1 Regional, 8-0.
Adelphi (32-21-1), which won twice and needed 10 innings to defeat the Caldwell Cougars in a nearly three-hour effort just to advance to Saturday's play on Friday, was stymied over of the course of the contest by LIU Post's Katie Humhej to the tune of just two hits.
On the other side of the softball diamond, East Coast Conference (ECC) Player of the Year Abbey Fortin exploded for five RBIs on a 3-for-4 day for the Pioneers on two home runs - including a second-inning grand slam which turned an early 1-0 deficit to a 5-0 hole that the Panthers could not climb out of - to power her team to the East Super Regional, where they will face second-seeded Saint Anselm.
Nicole Mengel was charged with the first four runs as she could not record an out in the second inning in the starting circle for the Brown and Gold, as the freshman hurler struggled with her command behind five walks to 10 batters faced to end her rookie season with a 12-5 record overall.
She gave way to
Ally Muller, who after recording the first out of the second with the bases loaded, but eventually surrendered the grand slam to Fortin, who went deep for the second time off of
Jessica Vadala in the sixth inning.
Vadala, who pitched a team-high 15.1 innings for the Panthers over three games over the regional weekend, surrendered three runs in 2.1 innings after hurling a career-high 10 in Adelphi's second win yesterday.Â
Adelphi's best chance to score against Humhej came in the first inning, where the Panthers - playing as the designated road team - got a runner into scoring position thanks to an infield single and stolen base from
Nicoletta Cuccio with one out, but they stranded two at the end of the inning.Â
The defeat ends the decorated careers of Adelphi's class of 2018 -
Nicole Camera,
Krista King and
Brenna Martini - who cap their careers as two-time Northeast-10 Conference champions, two-time NCAA East Regional champions with four straight NCAA appearances.Â
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, 41Â 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.
