Chapman Battles to Reach Finals

Chapman softball co-Coach Janet Lloyd was elated when the Panthers were moved out of the tough NCAA Division III West Regional softball playoffs last week. Saturday, her feeling was proven dead on again.

Simpson (Iowa), which won the West Region as the fourth-seeded team, gave the Panthers all they could handle for the second consecutive day at the Division III championship tournament. This time, however, top-seeded Chapman pulled out a 2-1 victory in the bottom of the 11th inning at the Moyer Sports Complex.

Chapman pitcher Christy Guidorizzi, who drove in both runs, won it with a line single to right-center that scored Lisa Cancilla from third, moving the Panthers (40-8) into today’s final against Trenton (N.J.) State. Chapman and Trenton (37-3) will play at 9 a.m., and if Chapman wins, another game will follow immediately to decide the champion.

Trenton State, the winningest softball program in Division III history, has won five national titles, but Chapman beat the Lions, 4-2, for the championship last season, the Panthers’ first in the division.

Chapman started Saturday’s contest one game from elimination and beat Allegheny (Pa.), 1-0, with sophomore Jessamine Maiben pitching a four-hitter. Chapman managed only three hits against Allegheny pitcher Laurie Machuga, but one was a 250-foot homer by Maiben in the fourth inning.

Then Chapman was given about an hour’s rest before the game against Simpson, which beat the Panthers, 2-1, Friday, their first Division III playoff loss.

And Simpson seriously threatened again. The Storm (31-10) tied the score, 1-1, in the top of the sixth, when Chapman catcher Kathy Donovan picked up an attempted bunt and threw it into right field. It was Donovan’s first error of the season.

Guidorizzi (26-4) pitched all 11 innings for the Panthers, striking out nine, but she said she didn’t have her best stuff.

“Kathy [Donovan] kept saying, ‘You are giving me a heart attack,’ ” Guidorizzi said, “because my balls weren’t moving. But I did enough to get by I guess.”

She persevered especially well in the top of the 11th inning after Simpson’s Jenny White reached third on a bunt single and a throwing error by Panther third baseman Lisa Simpson and Guidorizzi walked the next batter, Melissa Tracy, who stole second uncontested.

There was one out with Simpson’s Nos. 4 and 5 spots coming up. Guidorizzi struck out Holly Stevens and pinch hitter Jamie Johnson.

Chapman then responded in the bottom of the inning. Cancilla, 0 for three in the game, stepped up and hit a hard but seemingly routine ground ball right at shortstop Julie Langbein. As Langbein prepared to make the play, however, the ball took a giant bounce over her head into left-center. Cancilla hit it so hard it rolled into the gap and she had a ground-ball double.

Donovan moved Cancilla to third with a sacrifice and Guidorizzi singled sharply past the diving Trenton second baseman Tracy and that was it.

Earlier Saturday, things were more tense for the Panthers. Four-time All-American pitcher Laurie Machuga of Allegheny retired the first nine Chapman batters, but made her only major mistake to Maiben, the leadoff batter in the fourth inning.

Machuga got ahead of Maiben 1-2, but Maiben fouled off a handful of pitches and eventually worked the count to 3-2. Then Maiben pulled a low, inside pitch deep over the fence and the temporary bleachers in right field.

Maiben (13-3) gave up only four hits, none after the fourth inning and retired the final seven batters of the game.

Now all the Panthers have to do is beat a well-rested team with a 19-game winning streak and a team that apparently holds a grudge against Chapman.

Trenton’s out to get us,” Lloyd said. “They yelled that at us at the end of last year, ‘Well see you next year.’

“We got to the game, that’s the main thing. We are one of the two-best teams in the nation right now.”