After waiting out two days of weather delays, the Triton College softball team stayed alive in the NJCAA Division II Softball Championship with a 4-0 win over Potomac State College Friday afternoon in Oxford, Ala.
The win was the first ever at the national tournament in program history.
Also, in the process, the Trojans picked their 50
th win of the season and have hit the half-century mark in victories for the second consecutive season.
The Triton (50-8) offense did just enough to get the job done, while starting pitcher
Alyssa Stramaglia bounced back in a big way from her opening round start on Tuesday, going the distance with 14 strikeouts.
The Trojans scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the first to claim the early momentum. With one out,
Melissa Gonzalez doubled and advanced to third on a
Katlyn Cherry single. Then Triton head coach
Christina Christopher got aggressive as the Trojans pulled off a double-steal as Gonzalez crossed home to make it 1-0. Cherry would then score on a single to left by
Lucy Goodwin.
For a while, it appeared the 2-0 lead would hold up as Stramaglia battled the heat and got out of a bases loaded, one-out jam in the top of the second and a two-on, one-out jam in the fourth.
But the Triton offense came through in the clutch with two insurance tallies in the sixth.
Breanne Deutscher and
Taylor Schwartz had consecutive two-out run scoring hits to make the margin more comfortable for Stramaglia.
The sophomore from Fenwick, tossed 130 pitches and retired the final 11 Potomac State (41-4) batters she faced to earn her 24
th win of the season. She is just short of 300 strikeouts with 299 on the season.
Now the Trojans will face a familiar foe in Kirkwood Community College (IA) tonight at 7:00 p.m. in another elimination game. Triton split a doubleheader with the No. 7 seeded Eagles April 28 in River Grove. The rubber match will decide who gets to extend their season into Saturday.
Note: Tonight's game can be seen live by downloading the Game Changer Team Manager app. Create an accound and search "Trojans" under the filter for Softball 2022.
Please follow our Triton Athletics Twitter feed @TritonTrojans1 and tritonathletics.com for national tournament updates.
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