STATESBORO, Ga.- Appalachian State University softball (26-24) won its first elimination game of the day against Elon, 6-5, for the right to play for third place and fell short to College of Charleston, 6-3 in a game that featured a two hour and 37 minute weather delay at Eagle Field in Statesboro, Ga. in the 2011 Southern Conference Softball Championship.
The pitchers for both squads did not allow either team to get into an offensive rhythm and in the bottom half of the third inning with senior Katie Boyd on third, who walked and advanced on a stolen base and wild pitch, and junior Megan Rembielak, who struck out swinging, but reached first after the catcher dropped the ball, landed on second, the game was suspended at 6:51 p.m. because of lightening and eventually rain that blanketed the area.
After the teams were allowed to leave their buses and warm up for 30 minutes, the game resumed at 9:28 p.m. with sophomore Meghan Smith drawing a walk on one pitch as she was ahead in the count 3-0 when play was suspended. With bases loaded, sophomore Allie Cashion also drew a walk, bringing in Boyd for the game's first run.
Senior Hannah Dow got both Kelsey Hodgson and Katie Pesature to ground out to begin the fourth, but Kristi Woodall singled up the middle and back-to-back walks by Katie Nutaitis and Kristy Giragosian walked to load the bases. Hillary Stringer laced a shot to center field to collect two runs, giving the Cougars their first lead of the game at 2-1. Carly Corthell singled to left field and brought in Giragosian to extend the CofC advantage to 3-1.
Dow was then relieved in the circle by junior Caitlin Wainright, still with two outs in the inning.
Lizzy Vaughn drew a walk, but Katie Forbes struck out swinging to end the stanza.
With a 2-2 count, sophomore Hayley Grabner singled to the pitcher to lead off the bottom of the fourth and the Cougars also went to the bullpen and brought in Stephanie Saylors for Alexa Datko. Saylors got senior McKenzie Phillips to ground into a fielder's choice and senior Sarah Rappe singled to first base to put Mountaineers on first and second. Boyd recorded the second out of the inning on a questionable strike out, but a Rembielak single through the left side plated M. Phillips to put the Apps down 3-2. A wild pitch moved everyone up a base, but Smith hit a hard grounder to shortstop to end the rally.
Neither team did any damage in the fifth, but the Mountaineers were able to tie it up at 3-3 in the bottom of the sixth.
Grabner grounded out to second base to start the inning, but M. Phillips singled to shortstop in the next at bat. Rappe struck out swinging, but M. Phillips advanced to third on a Boyd single up the middle. Rembielak hit a hard chopper right in front of the plate and while the defense was focused on getting Rembielak out, M. Phillips was able to sneak home on the play to tie it up. For the second time in the game, Smith made good contact on a pitch, but excellent defense by the Cougars ended another ASU rally.
In the top of the seventh, Nutaitis nailed a sacrifice fly to score Forbes to give CofC a 4-3 lead and Giragosian slipped a two-RBI single to right field to score two more runs and seal the 6-3 game for the Cougars as Appalachian State went down in order in its half of the seventh to end the game.
Rembielak paced Appalachian State with three hits and two RBI.
Wainright (6-7) picked up the loss despite keeping the Cougars off balance with seven strikeouts, while Saylors (16-10) was the winning pitcher.
