Lynn ties career high in Ks, offense completes rally

The Danville News

May 08, 2008 08:25 am

— KUTZTOWN -- A nine-inning complete-game playoff win, a career high in strikeouts and Danville grad Ashley Lynn wasn't even the headliner for the Bloomsburg University Huskies on Wednesday.
She was still pretty good though. Lynn tied a career high by striking out 14 batters. She allowed four runs, only three earned, on three hits and two walks. But the offense behind her rallied late to win 5-4 over Slippery Rock University in Game 3 of the NCAA Division II Mid-Atlantic Regionals on Wednesday at Kutztown University's North Campus Field.
Lori Neyhard, Tara Reed and Lacy Mauro provided the late run-scoring plays that advanced Bloomsburg into Game 8, where it will face Kutztown at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday. Kutztown beat Shippensburg 1-0 in eight innings on Wednesday.
The second-seeded Huskies (49-9) were trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh to seventh-seeded Slippery Rock (27-16) when they forced extra innings, setting up some late game heroics by Neyhard and Reed.
Jersey Shore grad Mauro led off the seventh with a single and advanced to second on an error. She advanced to third on a groundout and headed home on a fly out, but Slippery Rock's Shardea Croes delivered a perfect throw to the plate, causing Mauro to go back to third.
The Rock's catcher dropped the ball on the play and Mauro might have been able to score, but it didn't matter. The next batter, Mandy Koch, reached on an infield error, plating Mauro to tie the game. Bloomsburg loaded the bases in the ninth and Neyhard's walk-off single scored Reed for the game-winning run.
Slippery Rock's Stacey Rhoads helped make the extra-inning showdown possible when she connected on a sixth-inning pitch by Lynn, sending it over the left-center field fence to make the score 3-2. Jessica Ellebruch scored later in the sixth, reaching and scoring on errors.
Earlier in the game Slippery Rock took a 1-0 lead and Bloomsburg tied it in the third when Kayleen Sidisky employed smart baserunning on a throwing error.
The Huskies took a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning when Danielle Lazorka singled in Tiffany Corliss. Later, Jenna Hampton's RBI-groundout cut Slippery Rock's lead to 4-3.
Reed, Casey Massimini and Neyhard each had two hits for Bloomsburg.