Trojans can't find their rhythm in NJCAA Tournament first round loss

Unfortunately for the Triton College softball team, Tuesday's 9-2 loss to Kansas City Kansas Community College in the opening round of the NJCAA DII Softball Championship in Oxford, Ala mirrored in a lot of ways to their first round national tournament loss a year ago to Mississippi Gulf Coast.

The No. 8 seeded Trojans high-powered offense struggled to get going, combined with an off day in the circle for ace Alyssa Stramaglia was too much for Triton to overcome as the No. 9 seeded Blue Devils controlled the entire game.

Kansas City Kansas (44-14) had the first two base runners reach against Stramaglia off a walk to Samantha Maynard and a swinging bunt infield single by McKenzie Ogden. The two would advance to second and third on a wild pitch before Stramaglia retired the next two batters. Then came Maya Sheldon who lined a two-run double to right-center to give the Blue Devils the early 2-0 lead.

After striking out the side in the second inning, Stramaglia could not survive the third inning as four walks were her undoing that led to two more Kansas City Kansas runs without the benefit of a hit.

Stramaglia was lifted for Claire Stillwell who recorded the final two outs in the top of the third.

However, Stillwell could not stop the bleeding as the Blue Devils tacked on three more runs in the the fourth to take a commanding 7-0 lead.

The Triton (49-8) offense went down quietly in order the first three frames against Kansas City Kansas starting pitcher Bradi Basler who retired the first 10 Trojans she faced.

Then the Triton bats came to life for their only two tallies of the contest. With one out in the fourth, Melissa Gonzalez singled and later scored on a two-out RBI double by Lucy Goodwin. Taylor Schwartz would follow with an RBI single.

From that point on, Basler settled down, allowing one hit and retiring 10 of the last 12 Triton batters she faced to earn the complete game victory.

The defeat puts Triton in a big hole as their next loss will end their season. The Trojans will meet Potomac State College from Keyser, WV in an elimination game Wednesday at 12:00 p.m. The No. 16 seeded Catamounts nearly pulled off a monumental upset against top seed Des Moines Area Community College in round one. Potomac State led 5-4 going into the last of the seventh before losing in walk-off fashion 6-5.

All Triton national tournament games will be streamed live on the NJCAA Network (PPV).
 
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