In Elon’s first game of the Coastal Athletic Association softball championship tournament, it was a battle to the finish against No. 3-seeded Campbell University.
Elon returns to the tournament this year as the defending champions, after winning the CAA for the first time in program history last year. This time, the tournament is hosted at Hunt Park in Elon.
Playing in front of the home crowd, the Phoenix started with a bang.
With 2 quick outs at the top of the 1st, Elon freshman Jenna Klein drove a ball up the middle for a single. Junior Teagan Baulsir cashed in on the moment. She lined a double over the center fielder’s head, bringing Klein home.
Junior Anna Dew, whose 2.87 ERA was best on the team, would soon encounter some turbulence.
With two outs in the second inning, Dew walked her first batter of the game — an issue that would trouble the Phoenix throughout the afternoon.
With runners on first and third, freshman Hannah Slutazh delivered an RBI single to tie the game at 1-1.
Dew’s biggest moment came in the fourth inning, when she struck out sophomore Haley Krebs with a runner on second to escape another scoring threat.
Elon responded.
Redshirt junior Mauri Murray reached on a bloop single that popped out of Campbell's outfielder’s glove as she hit the ground. Graduate student Reili Gardner and junior Greta Hessenthaler followed with four-pitch walks to load the bases.
Senior Mary Moss Wirt came through with a two-run single, giving Elon a 3-1 lead with three innings remaining.
But Dew’s command unraveled.
Two singles and two walks loaded the bases for Campbell in a 3-2 game. With a full count and nowhere to put the next batter, Dew delivered high for ball four, forcing in the tying run.
Elon head coach Kathy Bocock quickly rushed to Dew. She was pulled from the game.
“I think she just got a little dehydrated, with a little cramping,” Bocock said. “So we had to get her out of there. But she’s good, no injuries.”
Junior Kyra Leonard escaped the inning without further damage, but Elon’s lead had vanished. Neither team scored in the sixth inning, and Elon stranded a leadoff walk in the seventh.
Campbell’s Haley Krebs reached on a weak infield single, allowing the winning run to race home before Elon could make a play at the plate. The walk-off hit gave Campbell a 4-3 win and pushed Elon into the losers’ bracket.
“We gave them everything we could,” Bocok said. “The ball could have bounced our way a couple times, and it just went their way.”
With the game concluding at 5 p.m., Elon had an hour to prepare for a win-or-go-home game against Stony Brook University at 6 p.m.
“After the game was over, our kids could have just laid down and said, ‘You know, we’re tired, we can’t do it,’” Bocock said. “And they came back out and played a hard game again.”
Elon handed the ball to junior pitcher Lia Miller, who threw a complete game in the Phoenix’s 9-2 victory over the Seawolves on April 25.
This time, Stony Brook struck first.
With two outs, Miller walked two runners and gave up a single to a third, loading the bases.
With two outs in the bottom of the first, Miller walked two batters and surrendered a single to load the bases. Camels’ Naiah Ackerman then ripped a ball into the center-right gap, clearing the bases and giving the Seawolves an early 3-0 lead.
Junior pitcher Lia Miller throws a pitch during Elon's second game of the Coastal Athletic Association softball championship. The Phoenix lost the game against the Stony Brook Seawolves, 5-3. This marks the end of the Phoenix softball season.
Elon answered in the next few innings, quickly making it a 3-2 game.
Gardner legged out an infield single before Hessenthaler and Mary Moss Wirt both worked walks to load the bases. Klein grounded out to score Gardner, tying the game at 3-3 in the top of the fifth.
But Stony Brook answered immediately.
A rally in the bottom of the inning gave the Seawolves a 5-3 lead. Despite some individual hits from the Phoenix, the team could never rally back from the deficit.
Stony Brook turned a game-ending double play to eliminate Elon from the CAA tournament and end the Phoenix’s season. Bocock said several pivotal moments throughout the day came down to narrow breaks.
“But then at the last play of the game, the ball hits off and bounces right to them to turn a double play on us,” Bocock said. “It’s kind of like one of those things that this year we feel like that’s happened to us a few times — just kind of how the ball bounces.”
Despite the early exit, Bocock said she was proud of the culture the team maintained throughout her 15th year as Elon’s coach.
“I’m the luckiest coach around because I coach some of the best human beings around,” Bocock said. “It’s not just about the game of softball. I’m so proud of them. They are going to do amazing things. ”
Elon will lose five players to graduation, but Bocock said the program’s veteran leadership has helped establish a foundation for the future.
“We’ll be young again, but we’ll have quite a few seniors from that junior class,” Bocock said. “We’ll just get ready and get right back to it and do what Elon softball does — work hard every day and represent this program.”