Time's up for Minutewomen
AMHERST - In the end, there were no runs or hits on the scoreboard, and no gas left in their tank. For the University of Massachusetts Minutewomen, there was also no perspective yet on a successful season that ended after an exhausting weekend of softball.
UMass took Stanford to the limit in the NCAA regional by defeating the Cardinal in a 2-1 thriller yesterday afternoon, but then fell in the championship game, 6-0, on a no-hitter by Missy Penna. UMass, which had to play five games in two days, finished the tournament as it had started it - with disappointment in the rain.
"Once today is over, tomorrow, a couple of days, then you can reflect on it, but I can't stop thinking about the game right now," said a choked-up third baseman Whitney Mollica.
"It's still an open wound right now," added pitcher Brandice Balschmiter.
Stanford, 49-13, continues its season this week with a best-of-three Super Regional against Texas A&M. The winner will go on to the eight-team College World Series.
UMass, which had set a return to the College World Series for the first time in 10 years as a seasonlong goal, closes up shop at 42-13.
"I've played in a lot of regionals in my [29-year] tenure here, and I can't think of one that was tougher than this one on our team," said UMass coach Elaine Sortino. "They showed incredible character. As hard as it is for us to lose, I still feel real proud of our efforts across the board."
UMass seemed to be up against it all weekend. Friday, after Stanford defeated Lehigh in the opener of the double-elimination tournament, UMass's game against Princeton was suspended in the first inning because of rain. That forced the Minutewomen to play three games Saturday, victories over Princeton and Lehigh sandwiching a 3-0 loss to Stanford on a two-hitter by Penna.
In the sixth inning of Saturday's survival game against Lehigh, Balschmiter landed awkwardly on a pitch and cried out in pain. She was carried off the field with an injury to her left ankle, and arrived in the postgame news conference on crutches. She insisted she would be ready to go the next day when UMass would need to beat Stanford twice.
Balschmiter made good on her word and pitched UMass past Stanford in the opener. Playing as the road team in Game 1, the Minutewomen reached Penna for two unearned runs in the first inning on two of their five hits and two errors, both of which Penna committed. Those runs would be the only ones Penna would allow in four games at the regional.
Balschmiter made the runs hold up, thanks in large part to some stellar defense in the late innings.
In the sixth, with one out and one on, Stanford's Rosey Neill cranked a shot to distant right center, but Carly Normandin grabbed it at full extension on the warning track, whirled and fired to double the runner off first.
In the seventh, facing a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam, Balschmiter surrendered a sacrifice fly to Tricia Aggabao, but then got a nifty 5-6 force at third on a fine play by Mollica and Whitney Williams. Balschmiter then fanned Alissa Haber, to end the game.
Any momentum, though, fizzled in the nightcap as the rain began to fall.
Haber reached on a Mollica error to lead off the game, and Stanford took advantage to put three runs on the board, touching Balschmiter for three hits.
The Cardinal added a run in the second, and two more in fifth, including Neill's 19th home run, a ringing blast to right center.
UMass, meanwhile, could get nothing going against Penna. One of 10 children, all of whom were home-schooled by their mother in Miami, Penna schooled the Minutewomen with a vicious riseball, an array of breaking stuff, and pinpoint control.
"She did a really good job of just going at them," said Neill. "If one pitch, her drop, wasn't working this inning, she held her own with her screw and her curve."
UMass's only close bid for a base hit came with two outs in the sixth when Mollica ripped a liner that appeared ticketed for center field. Penna reached high to snag it, leaving the ball on the mound for Balschmiter, whose long day was not going nearly as well.
