Its finals week at Triton College and the Trojans softball team passed their first postseason test with flying colors. Triton earned a sweep in two games of their best-of-three Region 4 Division II quarterfinal series over Black Hawk College. The Trojans won each game in six innings, 9-0 and 9-1 May 11 in River Grove.
Triton, ranked No. 11 in the latest NJCAA Division II softball poll have now won 20 straight games to improve to 49-7 overall. The Trojans will advance to the Region 4 Finals May 15 and 16 at
Read Park in Freeport as they finished the home campaign with a 30-2 record.
Sauk Valley Community College will be Triton's next test Saturday, May 15 at 11:00 a.m. The Trojans swept a twin-bill from the Sky Hawks (17-20) March 13 in River Grove by scores of 11-3 in six innings and 14-3 in five innings.
There is definitely some pressure on Triton being the top-seed and favorite to win the tournament. So getting a pair of playoff games under their belt was important for head coach
Christina Christopher.
"We were hungry and excited to play," Christopher said. "Getting the opportunity to play an opening round series was a great experience for us and will help us going into the rest of the tournament."
The Trojans went to their ace hurler,
Alyssa Stramaglia in game one. The Fenwick High School graduate blanked the Braves (10-21) in six innings, allowing just one hit and striking-out nine.
Back-to-back doubles by
Samanta Nelson (Taft) and
Geneva Pollman (South Elgin) put Triton on the board in the second inning.
However, Black Hawk starter Kayla Roemer did her best to keep one of the top offenses in the nation in check, including getting out of a bases loaded nobody out jam as the Braves remained down the lone tally entering the bottom of the fifth.
But the Triton bats awaken with a pair of runs on a
Katlyn Cherry (Hebron, IN) sacrifice fly and RBI single from
Celeste Boshold (Elmwood Park) to make it 3-0.
Then the Trojans brought out the big bats with a six-run sixth to end the game one-half inning early.
Alexis Maldonado (Morton) hit a two-run homer to center.
Melissa Gonzalez hit a solo shot a little further out to center. Then Boshold ended the proceedings with a rocket two-run home run to left that traveled at least 300 feet.
"We got off to a little bit of a slow start, but once the bats woke up, our team woke up," said Christopher. But our energy was up the entire game which is exciting to see.'
Triton carried over the momentum into game two, jumping out of the gate with four runs in the first inning and never looked back.
Carissa Bombardiere (Geneva) set the table in the lead-off spot going 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and runs scored. Nelson was 2-for-4 with two RBI's.
The run support was more than enough for Pollman on the mound, who improved her mark to 14-3. Pollman went six innings, allowing four hits, one run while striking out six. She also helped her own cause by reaching base all four times up, including an RBI triple that sliced off the center field fence and a double.
With the first step complete on the road to winning the programs first regional championship since 1988, Christopher wants her squad to stick to the basics this weekend in the double-elimination four-team portion of the tournament.
"We talked to the team about playing these games coming up out-by-out, hit-by-hit, inning-by-inning," said Christopher. "We just need to keep the game as simple as possible and continue to play the type of game we've been playing the last three months."
Click here for tournament bracket.
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