SALISBURY, Md. -- It was one of those days that started with a bang and ended with a thud for Virginia Wesleyan College's softball team.
The Marlins posted a 3-0 lead over New Jersey's Kean University in the NCAA Division III regional tournament, but the Cougars wiped it out in one inning and kept the bats hot en route to a 13-5 victory that ousted VWC from the event.
Kean (17-26), the two-time defending champion of the New Jersey Athletic Conference, connected for four hits, and took advantage of a VWC error in the bottom of the second inning, to score four runs that erased the Marlins' lead.
Virginia Wesleyan (29-11), the champion of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, scored three runs in the top of the first, with the big blast coming off the bat of junior Jaclyn Quinn (Chesapeake, Va./Hickory). She belted a two-run homer over the left field fence, scoring Brianna Bertovich (Richmond, Va./Monacan), who doubled in front of her.
Quinn emerged as the spotlight batter in the game, connecting for a pair of home runs in two times at bat. She clobbered another two-run shot over the right field fence in the fourth inning, scoring Bertovich, who reached base on a wild pitch. That homer pulled VWC within a 6-5 score.
But, the Marlins did not get any closer as Kean answered with three runs in the bottom of the fourth and came up with the defensive plays to keep VWC without a run in the top of the fifth, with bases loaded. Kean put the game away with a four-run fifth inning, belting out five hits and utilizing two Marlin errors.
Virginia Wesleyan scattered six hits in the game, led by Quinn, while Kean belted 14, led by Courtney Melchionna (Linden, N.J./Linden) and Sandra Binkiewicz (Belleville, N.J./Belleville) with three each.
MacKenzie Creech (Hillsborough, N.C./Orange) started in the pitching circle for VWC and faced 28 batters. She struck out two, walked one and gave up 12 hits. Chrissy Crawford (Norfolk, Va./Granby) finished, striking out one and allowing two hits to the four batters she faced.
Courtney Smyth (Abington, Pa./Abington) tossed for Kean and struck out four. She walked three and allowed six hits.
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