HAGERSTOWN, MD – The seventh seeded Anne Arundel Community College softball team split Saturday's play-in series with second seed Hagerstown Community College, forcing a third and deciding game to determine who will advance to the double-elimination NJCAA DII Region XX tournament May 9-11. Anne Arundel won the first game, 4-3, in eight innings before dropping the second, 8-0, in five innings.
The two teams meet again Monday, May 6th in a 4:30 pm game to determine who will advance to Catonsville this weekend.
The Riverhawks (13-22) held a 3-0 lead headed into the bottom of the seventh in game one, but the Hawks (32-9) tied the game on five hits. In the top of the eighth, Sylvia Frye doubled with two outs. Hagerstown starter Katlin Wolfe exited the game, giving way to ace Emily Talbert. AACC's Alexis Brengle extended her at-bat by fouling off three on a 2-2 count before placing a single in center to score Frye, who had advanced to third on a wild pitch during Brengle's at bat.
Riverhawks' pitcher Gracie Culley induced a fly out and a pair of groundouts for a 1-2-3 bottom of the inning and the win.
Frye hit an inside-the-park home run in the second inning to put the Riverhawks on the board and Carly Gernert hit a two-out single to right, driving in a pair of runs in the fourth to give AACC a 3-0 lead they would keep until the seventh.
Culley struck out four, walked two, and scattered seven hits – none for extra bases – in the win.
The second game was a different story, however, as Talbert struck out 10 and held the Riverhawks to one hit, a Kyleigh McQuade single in the fourth.
The Hawks tagged Culley for five runs on three hits in the first inning before chasing her out for Veronica Hampton, who struck out one and walked four in three innings.