May 17, 2009

Gustavus Adolphus Eliminates Tufts from NCAA Softball Championship

Courtesy Tufts Sports Information

MONTCLAIR, N.J. - The extraordinary 2009 Tufts University softball season is over following a 5-0 loss to Gustavus Adolphus College at the NCAA Championships on Sunday night at Montclair State University. Gustavus sophomore pitcher Erin Truebenbach allowed just three Jumbo hits in the shutout victory.

The Gusties (42-8) advance to play in the loser's bracket final against Coe College tomorrow at noon. The winner will face Messiah for the 2009 NCAA Championship, needing two wins against the Falcons to take the title. Tufts, which places fourth at the NCAA Championships, finishes the year at 44-3. Their outstanding .936 winning percentage ranks seventh-best all-time in NCAA Division III Softball statistics history (since 1982).

Gustavus manufactured a run in the top of the first inning, and it turned out to be all that they would need. Senior CF Emily Klein led off with a single up the middle and stole second base. She advanced to third on a ground out and scored on a sacrifice fly to left by senior shortstop Rachael Click.

Truebenbach retired the first six Tufts batters. Sophomore Izzie Santone (Madison, Conn.), making her second start of the day for the Jumbos, stranded Klein at second after a one-out double in the top of the third. Junior shortstop Casey Sullivan (Berlin, Conn.) got the first Tufts hit in the bottom of the third, a single to left, and she was sacrificed to second by senior LF Roni Herbst (Montclair, N.J.). Truebenbach left her there with a strike out and a ground out to exit the inning.

Santone was again able to hold a Gustavus scoring threat in the fourth. Gusties sophomore 1B Emily Wendorff led off with a single and was sacrificed to second. She moved to third with two outs, but Santone got the final out on a grounder to third.

The Gusties, considering how well Truebenbach was pitching, blew the game open with three runs after two were out in the fifth. With pinch runner Mackenzie Weber on first, sophomore RF Jenny Ewert singled to put runners on first and second with two down. Click then provided the game's biggest blow by hitting a two-run double to center field and scoring on a throwing error during the play. The Gusties led 4-0.

The Jumbos had just one hit in the game after going three up, three down in the fifth. Uncharacteristically, another Tufts miscue led to Gustavus' fifth run after two outs in the sixth. Junior 3B Andrea Brown led off with a single up the middle and moved to third on a sacrifice and a ground out. She scored on an error to give the Gusties a 5-0 advantage.

Herbst led off the Jumbo sixth with a single, but did not move up as Truebenbach recorded two fly outs and a strikeout. In the seventh, Tufts senior RF Maya Ripecky (Chicago, Ill.) got her 71st hit of the season, a single up the middle with two outs, and moved to second on a wild pitch. However, that was the last hurrah for the '09 Jumbos.

Truebenbach struck out four and did not walk a batter during her outstanding performance. Klein, with two hits and a run at the top of the order, Click with three RBI and Wendorff's two hits led Gustavus, who had nine hits total.

Santone, who had not allowed an earned run in two previous starts during the weekend, was touched for eight hits and three earned runs, while striking out two and walking no one.