BOX SCORE VS. GENEVA

BOX SCORE VS. THIEL

LATROBE (May 3) - After winning the regular season Presidents' Athletic Conference championship, the Saint Vincent softball team was eliminated from the conference tournament after suffering a pair of setbacks against Geneva, 3-1, and Thiel, 4-1.

With the losses, the Bearcats finish the season with a 24-16 record after posting a 13-5 mark in league games during the regular season.

In the first game, Geneva picked up a run in the top of the first inning on an RBI triple to take the early 1-0 lead.

The Golden Tornadoes added two more runs in the third inning to extend the lead to 3-0 which was all pitcher Julie DiLonardo, who entered the tournament ranked in the top five nationally in multiple pitching categories, needed.

SVC was able to score a run in the bottom of the sixth inning when sophomore Lindsey Daniels led off with a single up the middle and junior Maria Adams walked. After two outs, sophomore Ally Vrcek delivered an RBI single to left center to score Daniels and cut the margin to 3-1, before DiLonardo was able to get out of the inning with a strikeout.

Daniels led the way with a pair of hits in a 2-for-3 performance while Adams and Vrcek collected the Bearcats two other hits.

Junior Emily Lauterbach (10-4) suffered the loss after surrendering all three runs in 3.0 innings while yielding four hits. DiLonardo improved to 24-16 on the season as she went the distance, striking out eight.

Against Thiel, the Bearcats pushed across their only run in the bottom of the third inning. A one-out walk to Daniels was followed up by Adams reaching on a fielder's choice and sophomore Becky Deane singling through the right side to load the bases. Freshman Shannon Baczek then drove in Daniels with a sacrifice fly, 1-0.

Thiel rallied for four runs in the top of the seventh inning on five hits and one SVC error to take the 4-1 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh.

With two outs in the inning, back-to-back walks to Daniels and Adams brought the tying run to the plate, but Thiel starter Amanda Callahan forced a pop-up to end the game.

Vrcek (6-4) suffered the loss after giving up all four runs (two earned) with six strikeouts and 10 hits in 7.0 innings. Callahan earned the win in tossing a three-hit, complete-game.

Baczek, Deane and junior Sam Shumaker each recorded hits for SVC while Daniels and Adams combined all five walks that the Bearcats drew.