RECORDS: #1 St. Mary of the Woods College 31-11, #8 Berea College 17-14
LOCATION: 2015 USCAA Softball National Championship, Akron, Ohio
IN BRIEF: St. Mary of the Woods College defeated eighth seeded Berea College 6-2 to secure the school's ninth USCAA Softball National Championship. The Pomeroys went unscathed through the winner's bracket, picking up victories over Berea College, Briarcliffe College, and Carlow University in route to the championship game. It took a couple of innings, but the St. Mary of the Woods offense that scored 27 runs in the first three games of the tournament was able to break through.
ON THE FIELD: Pomeroys' senior Brooke Jordan was able to stymie the Berea College offense for the second time in the tournament. The Lady Mountaineers were able to load the bases with one out in the first inning off Jordan. Morgan McClure followed with a single that gave Berea the early lead, but Hannah Carter was thrown out at home trying to score on the hit. That ended up being the Lady Mountaineers best opportunity of the game, as Jordan would settle in from that point. She would end up going the distance, pitching seven innings giving up four hits and allowing two runs. It was a line nearly identical to the first time she faced Berea earlier in the tournament.
After giving up the early run, St. Mary of the Woods would respond with an RBI single in the top of the third by Emma Riffe to tie the game. In the fourth, with runners on first and second, Kerri Schrock roped a double down the third base line to score both runners. St. Mary of the Woods would go on to add two big insurance runs in the fifth. Berea would respond with a run in the bottom of the fifth inning on an error to cut the lead to 5-2. The Lady Mountaineers would threaten again the bottom of the seventh, but Jordan would work out of the jam and earn Tournament MVP honors.
St. Mary of the Woods received multiple hits in the game from Riffe and Marlee Yaeger and Sarah Burnham reached base three times. Seniors Jordan and Shelby Turner added RBI's for the Pomeroys,' but it was the freshman Schrock who delivered the biggest hit of the game, her fifth of the tournament. Berea College's McClure added her 10th RBI of the tournament and Carter added another hit, giving her one in all of the Lady Mountaineers seven tournament games.
2015 USCAA Softball All-Tournament Team:
Tori Lemay, NHTI
Masha Lange, NHTI
Emily Pritts, Carlow University
Allison Hyradil, Carlow University
Kari Kviten, Berea College
Hannah Carter, Berea College
Sarah Burnham, St. Mary of the Woods College
Emma Riffe, St. Mary of the Woods College
Kerri Schrock, St. Mary of the Woods College
Tournament MVP: Brooke Jordan, St. Mary of the Woods College