CMS Softball Falls to Chapman in SCIAC Tournament Elimination Game

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Destiny Garcia was 2-for-3 with a two-run triple, but the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps softball team fell into an early 4-0 hole in the top of the first inning and wasn't able to dig its way out as it fell 7-3 to Chapman in a SCIAC Postseason Tournament elimination game on Saturday morning at Athena Field. 

CMS falls to 26-14 on the season with the loss, while Chapman, which also eliminated Pomona-Pitzer later in the day on Saturday, improves to 26-15 and will meet Redlands in the championship round on Sunday at Athena Field. 

Garcia hit her two run triple after Kaili Aqui and Emma Suh led off the bottom of the third with two straight singles, and came in to score to cut the lead to 4-2. Rachel Sapirstein then hit a sacrifice fly to score Garcia and make it a 4-3 game with four innings still to play. 

Jillian Kelly, though, came out of the Chapman bullpen and held CMS to just one hit over the final 4.2 innings, which was a Paige Zimmerman single in the fourth. She retired the Athenas in order in the sixth and seventh innings to close the game out. 

Chapman, meanwhile, pushed across single runs in the fourth, sixth and seventh to stretch its lead to 7-3 and take some of the pressure off of Kelly in the late innings. 

Grace Fosselman and Ella Milante each had two-run singles in the first inning for Chapman, while Samantha Kelly had an RBI double in the sixth and Milante added an RBI double in the seventh.  

CMS will wait for a possible at-large selection to the NCAA Tournament when bids are announced on Monday after sharing the regular season SCIAC title and earning the top seed in the conference tournament.