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Friday, May 16, 2008
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CLC rebounds after upset COLLEGE SOFTBALL By BOB BROWN
ROCHESTER - Central Lakes College's chances of winning the NJCAA national softball title, or even advancing to the championship game, took a mighty hit Thursday.
The Raiders, ranked No. 1 in Division III and owners of a 37-game winning streak, were upset 4-3 by unheralded Queensborough College of New York in the opening round of the national tournament and now face long odds of even duplicating last year's runner-up finish.
Central Lakes came back with an 11-3 win over Lorain County Community College (Ohio) in a losers' bracket game later Thursday, but to take the title the Raiders would have to win five straight games over the next two days.
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Central Lakes College shortstop Brittany Thorson (left) congratulated pitcher Olivia Graham after a strikeout against Queensborough in the NJCAA Division III softball tournament Thursday at Rochester. Graham struck out eight and walked two in pitching a complete game.
» Purchase reprints of this photo.
Ken Klotzbach
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And, to make matters even more difficult, the first of those games was Friday against two-time defending national champion Monroe Community College (N.Y.), the team that beat Central Lakes in the finals a year ago.
Monroe, the nation's second-ranked team, beat DuPage Community College (Ill.) 8-3 in the opening round Thursday, but was then upended 6-3 by Westmoreland Community College (Ohio).
"I can't believe we'll be playing Monroe at this point in the tournament," Central Lakes coach Bob Sullivan said. "To me, that's the championship game. We have a tough road ahead of us, but we'll take it just one game at a time. We can beat anybody in this tournament."
The team the Raiders couldn't beat Thursday was Queensborough, which took a 16-5 record into the tournament and was making its first appearance in the nationals.
Raiders split
Highlights: CLC lost its opener 4-3 to Queensborough Community College before bouncing back to beat Lorain County, Ohio, 11-2.
Record: CLC 38-2
Next: CLC vs. Monroe CC, N.Y., 10 a.m. Friday.
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"I wasn't surprised at Queensborough," Sullivan said. "I was surprised at us. We came out flat. We just didn't play Raider ball. We didn't get it done, especially in the batters' box."
Central Lakes managed only six hits in the game, all singles, and only four of them got out of the infield.
"It wasn't so much about what their pitcher did, it was what we didn't do," Sullivan said. "Olivia (Graham) pitched a good game for us. We made a couple of errors, but that will happen. We just didn't hit like we're capable of hitting."
Graham, who took a 14-0 record and a 0.63 earned-run average into the game, struck out eight and walked two in pitching a complete game. All four runs she gave up where unearned.
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Ken Klotzbach Central Lakes College pitcher Olivia Graham delivered against Queensborough Community College in the opening game of the NJCAA Division III softball tournament Thursday at Rochester. CLC was upset 4-3.
» Purchase reprints of this photo.
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Queensborough scored all of its runs in the third inning when the Raiders suffered a meltdown. A couple of errors, a walk and a bases-load triple by Jessica Gibbons and Central Lakes was down 4-0.
The Raiders came back with three runs, but those weren't the result of stellar hitting. One came when Ali Mathison scored from third after Graham was caught in a rundown between first and second base, another came on an RBI infield hit by Graham and the last came in the
sixth inning when Lindsey Latour raced home on an error.
Kayla McCusker went the distance on the mound to pick up the win for Queensborough, which went on to lose 12-0 to Brookdale (N.J.) Community College after playing Central Lakes.
The Raiders' second opponent of the day was even more unheralded than Queensborough. Lorain brought a 3-11 record into the tournament and didn't even have to play to qualify for the nationals. It happens to be the only Division III community college in its region.
"It even took us a while to get our bats going in that game," Sullivan said.
Central Lakes managed only one run through the first three innings and left the bases loaded in the third without scoring. But in the fourth Calliegh Johnson led off with a home run over the center field fence and before the inning was over RBI doubles by Izzy Anderson and Bridget Badger and an RBI single by Brittany Thorson staked the Raiders to a 5-0 lead.
Central Lakes sent 11 batters to the plate in the sixth inning and scored six more runs to take an 11-2 lead.
Ali Mathison started on the mound for Central Lakes and picked up the win to boost her record to 11-0, but she gave way to Graham in the fifth inning after giving up eight hits in her previous 2 2/3 innings of work.
"Hopefully this win will get us back on the right track," Sullivan said.
Game One
Only four Central Lakes players managed hits in the loss to Queensborough. Lindsey Latour and Olivia Graham had two each and Izzy Anderson and Ali Mathison had one apiece.
Queensborough 4 5 2
Central Lakes 3 6 4
WP: Kayla McCusker. LP: Olivia Graham (14-1).
Game Two
After getting only six hits in their first game of the day, the Raiders pounded Lorain pitching for 16 hits, including four for extra bases. Brittany Thorson had three hits, including a triple. Izzy Anderson had three hits, including a double, and Kjelsy Loeffler, Jess Michels and Lindsey Latour had two each.
Central Lakes 11 16 0
Lorain 3 8 3
WP: Ali Mathison (11-0). LP -- Heather Bankston. 2B: Izzy Anderson, Bridget Badger. 3B: Brittany Thorson. HR: Calliegh Johnson.
Thursday results
First round
Monroe 8, DuPage 3
Westmoreland 8, Ridgewater 0
Brookdale 8, Lorain 0
Queensborough 4, Central Lakes 3
Second round
DuPage 14, Ridgewater 11
Central Lakes 11, Lorain 3
Westmoreland 6, Monroe 3
Brookdale 12, Queensborough 0
BOB BROWN is the former sports editor of the Rochester Post-Bulletin.
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