Keuka Softball Claims Sixth Straight NEAC Title

The Keuka College softball team went a perfect 3-0 at the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) postseason tournament to earn the school's sixth straight NEAC title, and a berth into the NCAA Division III Regional Tournament (photo courtesy of John Boccacino, Keuka College Sports Information Director).

WILSON BOX   SUNYIT BOX
The Keuka College softball team was among the most prolific squads in the nation at turning double plays, and the Green and Gold’s ability to turn two lifted Keuka back into the NCAA Division III Regional tournament.

Keuka (22-11) defeated Wilson (Pa.) College 4-3 and SUNYIT 5-3 to claim the school’s sixth straight North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) postseason championship, and the Storm’s sixth straight berth into the NCAA Regional tournament.

The Storm turned three double plays against Wilson (26-4), which hadn’t hit into a twin killing the entire year before running into Keuka. Then, in the NEAC championship game against rival SUNYIT, Keuka turned a pair of momentum-killing double plays to pick up its fourth win in five tries versus SUNYIT.

Fittingly, the NEAC title game ended on a double play. Sophomore Danielle Gravel (Sidney, NY/Sidney), who went 3-0 in Keuka’s three NEAC postseason contests, snared a comebacker off the bat of Juleah Vedder and threw to freshman first baseman Kelly Proper (Silver Springs, NY/Letchworth) to double up Lauren Marleau and end the game. It was Keuka’s 21st double play in 32 games.

Sophomore Jill Hart (Cowlesville, NY/Iroquois) batted .500 (5-for-10) with four RBI and three runs scored in Keuka’s three NEAC postseason games to claim Tournament MVP honors.

“It’s such a great feeling, we’re all excited and to win NEAC’s like this is huge,” Hart said while clutching her MVP plaque.

“Our defense was great and we just have confidence in ourselves. We all felt pretty confident coming in, our confidence was high and to win this is special. We’re all thrilled, excited and ready to go to the NCAA’s.”

Keuka, which last year defeated rival Ithaca College twice in the regionals before falling to Messiah in the regional final, earned the No. 8 seed in the Amherst (Mass.) College regional and will take on No. 1 SUNY Cortland (38-8) in a first-round game at 10 a.m. Thursday morning in Amherst.

The winner of Keuka and Cortland advances into the winners bracket, while the loser needs to win out to avoid being sent home.

Whoever wins between Keuka and Cortland advances to face the winner of No. 4 Keene State (NH), with a 25-10-1 record, and No. 5 St. Joseph’s College (Maine), with a 33-7 record, at 2 p.m. Friday afternoon. The loser of Keuka/Cortland squares off with the Keen State/St. Joseph’s loser in an elimination game at 10 a.m. Friday morning.

The winner of the double-elimination regional will advance to the eight-team NCAA Div. III World Series in Salem, Va., May 18-22.

Hart had a pair of base hits while junior Terin Brown (Wayland, NY/Wayland-Cohocton) and sophomores Jessica Bandrowski (Center Moriches, NY/Center Moriches), Brooke Lovell (Arkport, NY/Arkport) and Katie Evangelista (Geneva, NY/Geneva) each had hits for the Storm, which won despite being out-hit 10-6.

Against SUNYIT, the Wildcats (27-11) pounced for three first-inning runs on five hits, including a two-run single from Vedder, but the Storm answered with three runs on just two hits in the bottom of the inning.

Bandrowski led off with a single and advanced to second on senior Elly Disbrow’s (Penn Yan, NY/Penn Yan) sacrifice bunt. A pair of errors allowed Bandrowski and Lovell to cross the plate before Brown tied the game on an RBI single up the middle.

“The first inning, I don’t know if we weren’t ready to play, but we definitely had a couple of errors and it would have been really easy to put our heads down and not come back,” said Disbrow, the NEAC North’s Co-Player of the Year.

“But I thought it really said a lot about our character that we came back, rallied and scored three runs right after, and I think that really deflated [SUNYIT] a little bit. It’s a reflection of our team that we don’t give up and we just don’t quit, even when we’re down.”