LIU Tops Wagner, 4-3 in Conference Championships

5/13/06 -- Top-seeded Long Island lost a three-run lead in the top of the seventh before coming back to score a run in the bottom half of the inning to overtake No. 3 Wagner, 4-3, in the fourth game of the 2006 Northeast Conference Softball Championship. The victory sends the Blackbirds into the winner’s bracket of the double elimination tournament where they will face the winner of Wagner-Robert Morris at 5:30 p.m.

Heading into the seventh, the Seahawks had managed only two hits off of
2006 NEC Pitcher of the Year Jenny Giles (Melbourne, FL/Eau Gaille) before tying the game with three runs and four hits in the frame.
Sophomore Victoria Batistelli (Huntington Beach, CA/Huntington Beach) led off the inning with a base on balls. Freshmen Jaclyn Vanore (Palisades Park, NJ/Paramus Catholic) and Andrea Lazzari (Reno,
NV/Wooster) each followed with infield singles to load the bases with no outs.

Second-team All-NEC selection Christina Hopkins (Edison, NJ/Edison) brought home Wagner’s first run of the game on a base hit up the middle. A throwing error on a pickoff attempt by the Blackbirds catcher allowed Vanore to score the team’s second run.

Following a sacrifice bunt by Margaret Gallia (Las Vegas, NV/Community College HS) and a groundout, sophomore Katie Stevens came through with a line-drive, two-out single to left that knotted the game at 3-3.
With runners on second and third, Giles struck out her fifth batter of the game to end the rally.

A fielding error by the Wagner shortstop allowed LIU’s Alyssa Winslow to reach in the bottom of the inning. Winslow led the Blackbirds offense with a 3-for-4 showing from the plate, including an RBI and two runs scored. Junior Holly Erwin (Riverside, CA/Martin Luther King) dropped a bunt down next to advance the runner and found an opening up the middle that allowed her to reach first. After Wagner hurler and NEC first team honoree Morgan Miller (Las Vegas, NV/Silverado) got the next two batters in order, the 2004 NEC Player of the Year Krystal Mejia (Sylmar, CA/Univ. of New Mexico) came through with a bloop single to left that scored Winslow for the game-winner.

K. Mejia finished with two hits, as did second team All-NEC performer Vanessa Mejia (Roanoke, VA/Roanoke Catholic). Vanore ended with a pair of hits for Wagner.