For the second year in a row, an MIAA team has advanced to the finals of the NCAA Division III softball national championships.
On Saturday, Alma clinched a spot in next week's finals in Salem, Va. by defeating Lake Forest, Ill., 7-1, to sweep the best-of-3 super regional from the Foresters, two games to none. The win clinched Alma's sixth trip to the national finals in school history and its first since 2005.
Last year, Trine won an NCAA super regional series over Emory, Ga. to advance to the final eight of the Division III tournament.
In Saturday's game, the Scots fell behind 1-0 in the first inning as sophomore pitcher Morgan Stratton allowed her first earned run of the NCAA tournament. The Foresters strung together three singles off Stratton, with Kayleigh Ambrose's hit driving in the game's first run.
It didn't take long for Alma to respond. In the top of the second, Alma parlayed three hits, a stolen base and a sacrifice bunt into two runs. Anna Couture's bunt scored Brooke Hein with the first run, and Kayla Merice's infield single drove in Marie Zill with a run that would put the Scots ahead to stay at 2-1.
Alma extended its lead in the third on Cori Witham's RBI single, then broke the game open with three more runs in the fourth. Merice doubled to lead off the inning. One out later, Lea Lusk's bunt single scored pinch-runner Jade Garcia from third. With two out, Sarah Collier blasted a two-run homer over the left-center field fence for a 6-1 Alma lead.
The Scots added their final run in the fifth on Couture's RBI single.
Any hope Lake Forest had of launching a late rally was quelled in the sixth. The Foresters had three hits in the inning, but a perfect relay from right fielder Erin Lee to Collier to Witham cut down a Lake Forest runner at the plate to keep the score at 7-1.
Stratton took care of the rest as she won her fifth consecutive game of the NCAA tournament. She scattered nine hits, struck out three and walked two. She has now allowed only one earned run in 36 innings for the tournament for a microscopic 0.19 earned run average.
Alma now faces by far its toughest test of the tournament, opening play on Thursday against unbeaten and two-time defending national champion Tufts, Mass. (46-0). The Jumbos won their super regional by sweeping Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 8-0 and 6-1. Thursday's game will be played at 6:30 p.m.
The Scots previously made the final eight of the NCAA softball tournament in 1994, 1999, 2000, 2004 and 2005. Alma's best finish was back-to-back third place showings in 1999 and 2000.
