Two-Day, 11-Inning Pod B Playoff Game Falls in Favor of Simmons, 2-1, vs. Saints Softball

NEWTON, Mass. – In the second-longest game in Emmanuel softball's last 20 years, an RBI single in the top of the 11^th by Simmons College sophomore Piper Kinney (Marlborough, Mass.) ended a two-day, Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Pod B game on Friday, 2-1 in favor of Simmons, at Taylor Field at Lasell University.

The Saints and Sharks started Pod B playoff play on Thursday evening, before lightning and eventually, darkness stopped the game in the 10^th inning. As a result, the two sides returned to Taylor Field on Friday to finish.

The win moves Simmons along in the winner's bracket, as they prepare to face Lasell on Saturday, May 4, at 1:30 p.m. The Saints loss drops them into the loser's bracket, putting them on the brink of elimination with a game against Albertus Magnus at 11:00 a.m. tomorrow.

A pitcher's duel between Kinney and Saints junior Madison Marks (Edgewater Park, N.J.) set up the need for two days of play as both pitchers put on a display in the circle that forced a low-scoring affair.

In the 11^th, Simmons junior April Beatty (Rochester, N.H.) opened the inning with a single through the left side of the infield. Back-to-back groundouts would move Beatty over to third and with two outs and a 1-2 count on Kinney, a perfectly-placed, looping pop-up between the Saints first and second basemen, fell in for a base hit, scoring Beatty for the 2-1 lead.

When Kinney returned to the circle in the bottom half of the inning, she shut the door on the Saints attempt to come back with two strikeouts and an infield pop-out to end the game.

Both teams scored in the seventh, runs that game across on Thursday night before the suspension of play moved the final innings to Friday.

A pass ball in the top of the seventh originally gave Simmons a 1-0 edge, but in the bottom of the frame, and RBI single by junior Abigail Farr (Windsor Locks, Conn.) tied things at 1-1.

The Saints had their chance for a walk-off win in the seventh with two runners on and no outs. But a missed safety squeeze bunt, a pop-out to second base, and a groundout to Kinney, ended the threat and forced extras.

In the circle, Kinney pitched 11 innings, allowing one run on three hits to go with a career-high 15 strikeouts. Marks also went 11 innings, allowing two runs on nine hits while striking out 11 Sharks.

At the plate, the only hit of the combined 12 hits between the Saints and Sharks that went for extra bases was a second inning double for Saints first-year Mia Fernandes (Taunton, Mass.), who finished 1-for-3 at the plate.

The second-longest game in the last 20 years falls an inning shy of the record, a 12-inning bout on April 5, 2014, against Mount Ida College.

Pod B play resumes tomorrow with the winner of Simmons and Lasell moving into the Pod B Championship on Sunday. The Saints will now need four wins to claim the Pod B Title, starting with an elimination game against Albertus Magnus.