Eastern Mennonite Stuns Roanoke, 5-2
Royals Move on to Face Emory & Henry
April 21, 2007  -  Box Score

SALEM, Va. --- Eastern Mennonite University (25-13) put five runs on the board in the fourth inning to oust second-seeded Roanoke College (29-9) from the 2007 Old Dominion Athletic Conference Softball Championships.  The Royals move on to face Emory & Henry College (22-20) in the elimination quarterfinals.

The Maroons hopped on the board first with a pair of tallies in the third inning.  Jessica Zeman walked to open the inning, and came around to score on Hillary Hudgins’ one-out double.  After Loren Messick flied out to right for the second out of the inning, Tamara Poles followed with Roanoke’s second double of the inning, this one to right-center to bring along Hudgins.

The Wasps began their five-run fourth inning with three straight singles by Nicole Shelton, Miranda White, and Natasha Viafora.  The latter’s knock to left-center brought pinch runner Lauren Michel around for the first run.

Kelsey Ruitenberg relieved Roanoke started Amy Gillis, but EMU’s momentum continued thanks to a passed ball that put runners on second and third.  Anna Coleman’s grounder to third seemed to signal the first out of the inning, but the throw came in high and skipped off the first baseman’s glove to allow Viafora to score from third.  Coleman took off for second in the next at-bat, and when the throw went all the way through to second base, Viafora darted for home and beat the return toss to give the Royals a 3-2 lead.

Roanoke continued to help EMU bring its runs around as a one-out error by the third baseman gave Nicole Wade a chance to trot home from third.  The final run came via a hit batsmen with the bases loaded, plating Jaime Fraysher.

Viafora and Fraysher combined to give up only four hits to the Maroons while walking four and fanning six batters.  Fraysher earned the victory, moving to 11-5 on the season following 3.2 innings of one-hit shutout ball.

Amy Gillis took the loss for Ronaoke, dropping to 10-3 overall.

Eastern Mennonite will play Emory & Henry at 6:00 p.m. later on Saturday for ticket into the lower bracket semifinals.  The game will take place on Field 1 at the James I. Moyer Sports Complex.