Albany Beats Claims 2nd Straight #AESB Title; Heads to NCAA Eugene Regional
VESTAL, N.Y. – For the second-straight year and third time in five seasons, Albany is the America East softball champion. Once again, the Great Danes came out of the loser’s bracket to claim the crown, defeating UMass Lowell twice on Sunday to win their seventh conference title in program history.
The top-seeded Great Danes beat the second-seeded River Hawks, 4-3, in the first game of the day by scoring three times in the bottom of the sixth on Sarah Petzold’s home run and then took the decisive game, 4-1, behind Miranda Jimenez’ performance in the circle at Binghamton University’s Softball Complex Sunday afternoon.
The Great Danes, the first top seed to win the conference title since 2012, will head to Eugene, Ore. for NCAA regional play. Albany will face top-seeded Oregon on Thursday at 8:30 ET on ESPN3 in its first tournament game. BYU and Drake are the other two teams at the regional, which goes through Saturday. Eugene Regional Central
Celeste Verdolivo earned Most Outstanding Player honors after going 3-0 in the circle with a 1.17 ERA in three games, allowing just three earned runs in 18 innings of work in the tournament.
Game 1 - Albany 4, UMass Lowell 3
Sarah Petzold’s three-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning helped force a decisive game in the 2018 #AESB Championship. UMass Lowell took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when Maria Moccio delivered a sacrifice fly to plate Casey Harding. Moccio delivered again in the fourth, knocking a two-run single to center, which gave her team a 3-0 lead. After Albany got one back in the home half of the fourth, Petzold, an All-Championship selection, crushed a homer of the left-center field fence, her seventh of the year, in the sixth to give the Great Danes a 4-3 lead. America East Pitcher of the Year Celeste Verdolivo stranded a runner in the seventh to keep Albany’s season alive.
Game 2 - Albany 4, UMass Lowell 1
Albany scored a pair of runs in the third and fifth innings and Miranda Jimenez allowed just one run over seven innings to claim its seventh #AESB crown. Kelly Spear and Chelsea Henige each delivered sacrifice flies in the second to stake the Great Danes to a 2-0 lead. The River Hawks got one back in the top of the fifth on a bases loaded walk by Sara Siteman to cut lead in half. But, Sarah Petzold, who delivered the key three-run homer in the day’s first game, struck again in the fifth, crushed a three-run double up the gap, to plate two and give Albany a 4-1 advantage after five. Jimenez, an All-Champmmade it hold up, allowing just seven hits and fanning five in a complete game effort.
Albany has won each of its last three titles, in 2014, 2017 and this year, by coming out of the loser’s bracket.
Verdolivo, Petzold and Jimenez are joined on the All-Championship team by teammate Chelsea Henige, UMass Lowell’s Courtney Cashman, Vanessa Cooper, Kaysee Talcik, Stony Brook’s Katelyn Corr and Melissa Rahrich, Maine’s Alyssa Derrick and Annie Kennedy, Binghamton’s Jessica Rutherford and UMBC’s Sierra Pierce.
Albany’s Sarah Petzold is the America East softball Elite 18 honoree for having the highest GPA among qualifying student-athletes participating in the championship game. The junior outfielder, who was a first-team All-Conference selection, has a 3.95 GPA majoring in psychology.
Visit Championship Central for links to box scores, highlights and recaps from every game of the championship.
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