Newburgh, NY–The Sage Colleges' softball team travelled to top seeded Mt. St. Mary College for the 2015 Skyline Conference tournament on Friday. Seeded fourth, Sage opened their tournament run facing the top seeded Knights in the double elimination tournament on Friday.
MSMC collected the 3-2 win to advance in the winners' bracket. Sage drops to the losers' bracket and will now play on Saturday at 1 p.m. in an elimination game against the loser of the No. 2 Farmingdale State College vs. No. 3 College of Mt. St. Vincent contest taking place later this afternoon. Sage stands at 17-14 o the year, while MSMC is now 18-9.
Sage's senior catcher Kristen Beikirch (Brockport, NY/Brockport) opened the action with a lead-off triple and scored first when rookie Alexa Silk (Freehold, NY/Greenville) had a double down the left field line to drive in Beikirch.
The Knights answered right back in the bottom half of the first inning when Shannon Sommer Soto reached on a lead-off double and scored on an RBI single from Danielle Soto to knot the action at 1-1.
MSMC took a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth as Stephanie Karcher singled up the middle, advanced to third on a fielding error by Sage. Michelle Surdan flied out to left field with sacrifice fly to drive in Karcher. Cindy Connoly doubled to left center. Chelsea Dexter reached on a dropped fly by a Sage outfielder and advanced to second, while Connoly scored the unearned run and gave the Knights a lead.
In the top of the sixth inning with two outs, Silk reached on a dropped fly by a MSMC outfielder and advanced to third. Junior Morgan Dunn (Cohoes, NY/Cohoes) singled to left field to drive in Silk and pull Sage within a run.
Junior pitcher Katie Kovage (Hoosick Falls, NY/Hoosick Falls Central) took the loss after six innings of work with three strikeouts and one earned run off six hits. She drops to 8-6 on the season. She is currently No. 2 in career strikeouts with 167.
MCMS's Cindy Connoly picked up the win and stands at 9-5 after strikeouts out nine and scattering four hits with one earned run in the action.
2015 Skyline Softball Championship
Friday, Apr. 24
Game 1 - No. 1 Mount Saint Mary def. No. 4 Sage, 3-2
Game 2 - No. 2 Farmingdale State vs. No. 3 Mount Saint Vincent, 2 p.m.
Saturday, Apr. 25
Game 3 - Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 10 a.m.
Game 4 - Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 1 p.m. (Sage vs. TBA)
Game 5 - Loser Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4, 4 p.m.
Sunday, Apr. 26
Game 6 - Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 5, 11 a.m.
Game 7 - If necessary, 1:30 p.m.