CHESTERTOWN — Washington College’s softball team is playoff-bound for the third year in a row, punching its ticket to the Centennial Conference tournament despite a sub .500 record.
WC slips in as the fifth seed in the five-school tournament after sweeping Franklin & Marshall on Saturday, 4-3 and 5-3.
The Shore ladies (12-24) finish 7-9 in the conference and will travel to No. 4 seed Muhlenberg (8-8 CC, 20-18) for the single-elimination play-in game tomorrow.
Washington and Muhlenberg split an April 18 twin bill in Chestertown.
Saturday in the opener against F&M, Mia Mavoides’ sacrifice fly to center field with two away in the last of the seventh plated Julia Guzman for the walk-off win. Guzman was running for Shannon Roche, who led off with a double and advanced to third on a fielding error.
F&M (4-12 CC, 10-25) had tied at 3-all after pushing a run across in the top of the seventh.
It was a back-and-forth game with ties of 1-1 after the first inning and 2-2 after the third, and Washington taking its first lead, 3-2, after scoring an unearned run in the home half of the fourth on Nevaeh Unzueta’s one-out single to center field.
Senior Gen Kozub (7-6) went the distance in the circle for the winners. Her line included two walks.
F&M outhit Washington, 10-6.
The Shore ladies came back to win the nightcap, scoring five of the last six runs after falling behind 2-0 after the first inning.
They completed their first doubleheader sweep of the season.
Washington pushed four runs across in the last of the fourth, a rally that started with back-to-back singles from Jenna Harper (2-for-3) and Lilly Wenzel with one way and a walk to Unzueta to load the bases. Lilly Cook’s infield single scored Harper to end the shutout and keep the bases load. Next up, Gracelyn Goforth (2-for-3) tripled to right field to chase home Wenzel, Unzueta and Cook with what would prove to be the winning run.
The locals tacked on an insurance run in the sixth inning on Roche’s two-out double that plated Unzueta, who led off the inning with an extra-base hit.
The Diplomats, who came away empty-handed after loading the bases with one out in both the third and sixth innings, ended the prolonged scoring drought when Alexa Klepper led off the seventh with a blast that cleared the left field fence to reduce the deficit to 5-3.
After Jaden Spigner and Kate Clement singled back-to-back with one out, Washington avoided any more run damage when the next batter flied out to left field for the second out and then Emmie Meeks coaxed a game-ending groundout from Hillary Murse.
Meeks (one walk, two strikeouts) earned the complete-game win.
****
The winner of Washington at Muhlenberg will travel to No. 1 seed Swarthmore on May 1.
Swarthmore clinched the top seed and home field with a 20-run differential in its doubleheader sweep of Dickinson on Sunday, 10-0, 11-1.
Swat (15-1 CC, 29-9) needed a pair of victories and an 18-run differential to leap over defending conference champion Gettysburg (15-1, 35-4) for the top seed in the championship tournament.
Ursinus (9-7 CC, 21-18) is the No. 3 seed and will travel to Gettysburg on Thursday, May 1 for a first-round game.
Swarthmore will host the remainder of the double-elimination tournament on Saturday and Sunday, May 3-4.
The tournament’s champion will earn the Centennial Conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament, slated to begin at 16 regionals sites on May 15-17.