Troy, NY--- The Sage Colleges' softball team hosted Farmingdale State College in a Skyline Conference Playoff game at Robison Field on Wednesday afternoon. The contest marked the very first Skyline Conference Tournament for the Gators in softball, while FSC started the tournament as a two-time tournament champion having won the league title previously in both 2009 and 2011.
Sage posted a 3-1 win to remain in the winners' bracket, while FSC falls into the elimination game. The Gators are 25-13, while FSC drops to 22-13. SUNY-Old Westbury bested top-seeded NYU-Poly in Wednesday's other first round contest setting the stage for the championship weekend play. Sage will face Old Westbury on Saturday at 10 a.m., while FSC will face NYU-Poly on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. All games on Saturday and Sunday will take place at NYU-Poly's Floyd Bennett Field (Brooklyn, NY).
The tournament wraps on Sunday, April 29 with the crowning of the 2012 Skyline Conference Champion, which will earn an automatic bid to the 2012 NCAA Division III Championships.
Sage 3-1 FSC
Sage jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when junior left fielder Rachel Smith (Valatie, NY/Ichabod Crane) reached on a two-base error. She moved to third on a sacrifice and was driven in by sophomore short stop Hillary Faas (East Greenbush, NY/Columbia) who singled for the team's lone hit of the inning.
FSC tied the action in the top of the third inning when junior Kristen Flint (Brentwood, NY/Brentwood) reached on an error. With one out, she made the most of another Sage error and scored the tying run.
Sage answered right back in the bottom of the inning as rookie Kristen Beikirch (Brockport, NY/Brockport) reached on a walk and stole second. She moved to third on a wild pitch and came home on a sacrifice fly by rookie Samantha Woitkoski (Troy, NY/Lansingburgh) to break the 1-1 tie.
The Gators added another run in the bottom of the fourth inning on RBI by Beikirch to drive in junior pitcher Kelsey Newberg (New Britain, CT/New Britain), who reached on a one-out single and moved to third on a double by Faas.
For the game, Sage's Faas was 2-4 with an RBI. Beikirch added an RBI and was 2-2 on stolen bases on the day to improve to 16-18 on the base paths this year with a team-leading .462 average.
FSC's senior Kaitlin Keenan (West Islip, NY/West Islip) was 2-3 with a double for the Rams, while three others each had a single in the game.
Collecting the win for Sage was junior pitcher Kelsey Newberg (New Britain, CT/New Britain) as she worked seven innings and fanned three, while yielding no earned runs off five hits. She broke Sage's single-season win mark with her 14th victory. She improves to 14-7 and leads the Gators with another two active records for most strikeouts in a season (99) and career (167). She surpassed the school record for most victories set in 2002 by Maria DeNovio (13).
FSC's senior pitcher Hope Zino (Bay Shore, NY/Bay Shore) took the loss after working four innings of work with two earned runs. She allowed five hits, while striking out three and walking five as she drops to 9-8. Rookie pitcher Taylor Tedeschi (Levittown, NY/Division Avenue) worked two innings for the Rams and struck out four Gators with no runs of hits allowed in her time in the circle.
