Little Falls, NJ (5/2/08) – Sophomore righthander Ashley Minervini (Cliffside Park, NJ / Cliffside Park) tossed a six-hitter as fourth-seeded The College of New Jersey posted its second straight shutout win in the tournament with a 1-0 victory over second-seeded and 13th-ranked Ramapo College in Game 6 of the 2008 NJAC Softball Championship Tournament at the MSU Softball Stadium on Friday afternoon.
Kelly Armstrong (Jackson, NJ / Jackson Memorial) drove in the lone run as the Lions (25-15), who defeated Rowan, 1-0 on Tuesday in the opening round, battles top-seeded and No. 5 Montclair State in the first game on Saturday at 11:00 am with the victor advancing to Sunday’s championship round. Ramapo (33-9) takes on Kean in an elimination contest set for 1:30 pm with the winner of that contest facing the MSU/TCNJ loser at 4:00 pm.
Minervini (14-8) recorded her fourth shutout of the season as she fanned six and outdueled senior righthander
Katie Norton (Livingston, NJ / Mt. St. Dominic). Norton also gave up six hits and walked just one as she fell to 13-4.
TCNJ got the only run it would need and for the matter the game in the bottom of the first. Ellen Seavers (Ridgewood, NJ / Ridgewood) led off with a singled to center, however Norton retired the next two hitters before issuing a walk to Camille Heller (Maple Shade, NJ / Maple Shade). Armstrong smacked a single to right field to score Seavers with the lone run of the game.
Minervini, who picked up the win versus Rowan on Tuesday, retired the first eight batters she faced before allowing back-to-back singles to
Sonni Caruso (River Vale, NJ / Immaculate Heart) and
Katie Donnelly (North Haledon, NJ / Eastern Christian) in the third inning. But she got a ground ball to end the inning to begin another string of eight in a row as the Lions maintained their 1-0 lead heading into the seventh.
Down to its last three outs, Ramapo’s
Rachel Wong (Livingston, NJ / Livingston) collected a one-out infield single and after a fly out,
Heather Camb (Totowa, NJ / Passaic Valley) singled to center putting the tying run in scoring position. But Minervini would escape again, this time with a fly ball as New Jersey avenged a pair of losses (6-4 and 2-0) to the Roadrunners during the regular season.
Armstrong finished 2-for-3 for TCNJ.