CRESSON, Pa. – The Frostburg State softball team scored five runs in the third inning and cruised to a 7-1 win over Medaille in the AMCC Tournament Championship, Sunday morning. The victory handed the Bobcats the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament behind their second conference title in school history.
Sophomore starter
Megan Magee (Egg Harbor City, N.J./Holy Spirit) tossed her third brilliant game of the tournament for the Bobcats (29-14). She limited the Mavericks (21-20) to just three hits and one run, while striking out five. Medaille entered the championship game on fire at the plate having scored 38 runs in its previous four games in the AMCC Tournament.
Both teams jumped on the scoreboard in the first inning of play. After Medaille scored a single run in the top of the frame, junior
Victoria Krichbaum (Olney, Md./Sherwood) singled home classmate
Brooke Tapman (Pocomoke, Md./Pocomoke) in the bottom of the first to knot the contest at 1-1.
Krichbaum struck again in the third inning with an RBI single that started a five-run scoring spree for FSU. Freshman
Taylor Vandegrift (Westminster, Md./Winters Mill) and sophomore
Jenna Delaney (Frostburg, Md./Mountain Ridge) each followed with two-run singles that put the Bobcats up 6-1.
Tapman tacked on a single run in the fourth inning with a solo homerun to center field as Frostburg State led 7-1.
Magee did the rest to preserve the win, holding the Mavericks hitless over the final three innings of play. She collected all three wins for FSU in the tournament, holding all three opponents to a combined 11 hits and just one run.
Krichbaum finished the title game 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a run, Vandegrift was 1-for-3 with two RBIs and a run and Delaney was 1-for-3 with two RBIs. Tapman led the Bobcats with three runs, including her eighth homerun of the season in the fourth inning.
The NCAA Tournament birth is the first in the 15-year history of the FSU softball program. Frostburg captured its only other conference title in 1998, the first year of the AMCC.
The Bobcats will find out who they play in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Monday morning.