FINAL BOX SCORE
(PETERSBURG, VA) It is tough to beat a team three times in one season and that was validated as Bowie State defeated Virginia State 5-3 in thrilling fashion to advance to Saturday's (4/19) CIAA Softball Championship game for the second straight season. The VSU loss sent the Lady Trojans to the double-elimination loser's bracket to face Johnson C. Smith.
Bowie State (23-8) jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the top of the 1st inning. Senior Erin Gray led off the game with a free pass after being hit by a pitch. Junior pitcher Heather Enders reached on an error by Virginia State right fielder Nikita Allmond, scoring Gray on the play. Sophomore Annette Makle doubled and recorded two RBI, scoring Enders and junior Virginia Hockey.
Virginia State (22-9) cut into the Bowie State lead in the bottom of the 5th inning on a single by Tiffany Coggins, scoring Allmond. VSU's Lady Trojans tied the game at 3-3 in the bottom of the 6th inning on just one hit. Allmond reached on a Bowie State error that scored Kristen Rountree and Judy Hatch singled, scoring Allmond.
Bowie State went down in order in the top of the 7th inning as senior Jillian Willey, junior Tiffany Toney and Gray all popped up. Virginia State threatened in their half of the seventh, but left two runners on base. Coggins walked in her order of the lineup and Sharron Lipford reached on an error by Bowie State.
BSU junior Tricia Corbin led off the 8th inning with a bunt single and advanced to second after an error by the VSU catcher. Virginia State pitcher Kjirsten Beckstead got Enders to fly out to left and sent Hockey to the dugout with a strike out looking. Makle singled and advanced all the way around to third, scoring Corbin. Senior Bethany Sloat singled, scoring Makle and gave Bowie State a 5-3 cushion.
Allmond lined out the center to began the Virginia State half of the 8th inning. Toni Jones reached base on an error and Judy Hatch joined her by way of a base-on-balls with one out. VSU's Geneva Washington grounded out to the pitcher, but advanced Jones and Hatch to third and second respectively. Beckstead stepped up to the plate and hit a soft line drive to the backhand of Toney that would have scored two. However, Toney, the CIAA Player of the Year, made probably the best athletic play of the championships by snaring Beckstead's liner to end the game.
Virginia State was led by Hatch with three hits. As a team, the Lady Trojans had seven hits in the setback but committed three errors. Makle was Bowie State's top offensive producer, tallying a team-high three hits and a game-high three RBI. BSU's Lady Bulldogs recorded nine hits on the afternoon, but was bitten by the error bug as well, committing four in the game.
Virginia State defeated Johnson C. Smith 9-8 in eight innings to remain in the championship race. VSU and BSU are no strangers to championship match-ups as the two met last year (4/21/07) with Bowie State winning 9-4 to capture its first CIAA softball title in school history.
