Chapman Fights to Avoid Elimination

Top-ranked and defending champion Chapman had a new experience on the Panthers’ first day of the NCAA Division III championship softball tournament--they lost.

Then the Panthers, who had won all nine of their previous Division III playoff games, nearly lost again and were staring at elimination Friday.

But Chapman, shut down on offense most of a hot and humid afternoon, had eight hits and four runs in the last five innings to beat Wisconsin Stevens Point, 4-3, at the Moyer Sports Complex.

Chapman lost to Simpson (Iowa), 2-1, in the first game.

The Panthers (38-8) advance to play Allegheny (Pa.), a 2-0 winner over Ithaca (N.Y.) in the another elimination game, at noon today. A victory in today’s game would mean another game immediately afterward, and then Chapman would have to win two more Sunday to win its second consecutive championship.

Chapman swept through the playoffs last year and didn’t give up a run in three games in its regional last week.

But Simpson took care of any feelings of invincibility with two outs and a runner on in the top of the seventh in the first game when third baseman Chrissy Mathews hit a 1-2 pitch over the left-field fence.

The home run, Mathews’ first hit since April, an 0 for 13 slump, gave Simpson a one-run lead. Shellshocked Chapman went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning.

In the second game, Stevens Point scored two runs in the first, and Chapman was putting up little fight in the first several innings.

At some point, Panther co-Coach Janet Lloyd couldn’t take it anymore. “I pulled them aside from everybody and I said things I’ve never said before to them,” she said. “One of the nicer things I said was, ‘You are going to be the first team going home if you don’t do something,’ and I can’t repeat the rest.”

Said sophomore pitcher Christy Guidorizzi: “It was scary.”

And it helped. Chapman scored one in the fifth on a leadoff single by Laurel Bailey and sacrifice by Kasie Chavez and an RBI double by Jessamine Maiben. Jenni Bankus started the seventh with a double into the right-center field gap, moved to third on a sacrifice and scored the tying run on a single to left by Lisa Simpson.

Chapman shortstop Lisa Cancilla, who started the day hitting .521 with an .845 slugging percentage but had managed only a single in her first five at-bats, led off the eighth.

Cancilla ripped a double to right, moved to third on a sacrifice and scored on Guidorizzi’s line single. Bankus reached on a fielder’s choice, Bailey singled and Chavez singled to left with Bankus scoring when left fielder Sheri Mount misplayed the ball.

The Pointers (33-12) rallied in the eighth--Dena Zajdel hit a leadoff home run and Kelli Harms singled sharply--but Guidorizzi struck out Kari Rowekamp and Jill Kristoff lined to right fielder Bailey, who doubled up Harms.

For most of the first game, it appeared that Simpson would become another in a long line of postseason Guidorizzi victims. Guidorizzi, tough in the regular season, had been nearly untouchable in the playoffs: in eight previous appearances, she was 8-0 with six shutouts, 87 strikeouts and an 0.39 earned-run average.

Chapman had taken a 1-0 lead in the sixth when Kathy Donovan doubled off the wall in left field and Simpson wasn’t doing much against Guidorizzi. She had 10 strikeouts, including two in the sixth and two of the first three batters in the seventh. However, the second batter, designated player Vickie Monson, turned on a pitch and doubled in to the gap in left center. Chapman left fielder Kasie Chavez nearly made a running catch but the ball glanced off her glove.

Guidorizzi struck out pinch hitter Jamie Johnson, and fired consecutive strikes past Mathews. After a ball, Guidorizzi served up a rise ball that didn’t rise. “It was as flat as could be,” Guidorizzi said. “It was one of those hit-me pitches, a meat ball.”