Conference

Today’s Championship game was a battle of the two true top seeds as the teams held a 2-2 deadlock through the fourth, fifth and sixth innings before Long Island ran away with it in the top of the seventh, scoring four.

Monmouth struck first with three singles, first by Chelsea Paprocki (Manassas, VA/Forest Park), who eventually came around to score on a wild pitch. Freshman Tish Derer (Philadelphia, PA/Saint Basil Academy) connected on the second single before All-Tournament teamer Emily deLong’s (Rothschild, WI/DC Everest) single brought in Derer in the bottom of the second frame.

LIU then answered with a pair of its own runs off a Brynn Lewis (Woodinville, WA/Woodinville) RBI-double and Mariesha Marker’s (Keizer, OR/McNary) avoidance of a tag at the plate on a fielder’s choice.

From there, neither team could find any offensive power, though both threatened in each of the following three innings. It wasn’t until the top of the seventh inning when Tournament MVP Lewis belted a three-run shot to give the Blackbirds a 5-2 edge. The very next batter, All-Tournament team member Raylene Asman (Escondido, CA/Escondido), increased the lead with a homer of her own down the left field line. With that, MU was unable to recover or score any runs in the game’s final half inning.

The Blackbirds now advance to the NCAA Tournament in the midst of a five-game winning streak against an opponent to be announced Sunday, May 16.