ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. - Stacy Falkowski lined a run-scoring single to right field with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning Friday to give Caldwell (N.J.) College a 1-0 victory over Northern Kentucky University in an elimination game at the NCAA Division II national finals.
Caldwell (45-7) loaded the bases with none out, but NKU starter Krystal Lewallen responded by striking out the next two batters. Lewallen then gained an 0-2 count advantage on Falkowski, but the freshman third baseman lined the next pitch into right field to plate pinch-runner Danielle Payne with the winning run.
“It was a low fastball. I don’t know how she hit it, but she was being aggressive,” Lewallen said of Falkowski’s RBI single.
Lewallen kept NKU (54-7) in the game by striking out 15 batters and allowing only three hits. The sophomore pitcher struck out 10 of the first 12 batters she faced and owned a perfect game until a one-out single by Jackie Velardi in the fifth inning.
NKU collected only two hits off Caldwell pitcher Corinne Reiser, who upped her record this season to 27-3. The Norse, in fact, did not have a base runner after a fourth-inning bunt single by Stephanie Leimbach.
“I don’t know if it was confidence or what, but we could not get the big hit when we needed it, and we have in the past,” NKU head coach Kathy Bown said after her team dropped its second straight game in the double-elimination finals. “Maybe it was the experience of being down here, and the atmosphere of playing in the championship. Or maybe a little bit of nerves came into play.”
Danielle Guerra led off the bottom of the seventh with a double to left center, and she was replaced by Payne. Katie Jackson’s sacrifice bunt was handled by first baseman Angie Lindeman, but her throw to third base in an attempt to knock off Payne sailed high and Caldwell had runners on second and third with none out.
“I thought it was the right play, but it was just a bad throw,” Bown said of Lindeman’s error. “I think we could have had her if the throw would have been lower.”
Lewallen intentionally walked Velardi to load the bases, and she appeared to have worked out of the jam after consecutive strikeouts of Reiser and Anna Dahl. Falkowski, though, stepped to the plate and delivered her game-winning single on an 0-2 pitch.
“We are a good hitting club, but good pitching can always shut down good hitting,” Caldwell head coach Dean Johnson said,. “We got timely hitting, and this was a great game.”
Lewallen, an NCAA Division II first team All-American, finished her season with a 31-5 record. Her 31 victories are a school record.
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Krystal Lewallen |