Gators Split NCAC Finale

Apr 29, 2006

Game 1 Boxscore
Game 2 Boxscore
Photogallery

MEADVILLE, Pa. – A Giannina Coccaro (Miami, Fla./Palmetto) (left) no-hitter in the first game highlighted a day in which the Allegheny College Gators (17-19, 8-6) split a double header with Denison University (29-11, 11-3 NCAC), winning the first game 2-0 before falling 4-2 in the afternoon finale.

The first game was a pitchers duel, with Coccaro and Denison’s Rachel Thomas matching each other pitch-for-pitch, as both had no-hitters heading into the bottom of the fourth inning.

The first hit of the game came in the bottom of the fourth inning, when Sarah Piranian (Mars/North Allegheny) led off with a single, but was forced out on an Abby Bodenlos (Pittsburgh/Shady Side Academy) groundout. Bodenlos advanced to second on an over-run play, before Rachel Ryan (West Salem, Ohio/Northwestern) hit a triple to right field, scoring Bodenlos. Ryan was then driven in with a sacrifice fly off of the bat of Crystal Ptacek (Allison Park/North Allegheny) (right), giving the Gators a 2-0 lead heading into the fifth inning.

Neither team would dent the plate for the remainder of the game, as the Gators picked up the 2-0 victory. Allegheny picked up four hits in the game, all from different batters, as Ryan, Piranian, Stephanie Lasinski (Gibsonia/Pine-Richland) and Lindsay Visco (Pittsburgh/Brentwood) picked up the hits, with Ryan and Ptacek driving in the pair.

Coccaro improved to 7-8 on the season with her second consecutive shutout, striking out seven over the seven innings and walking one, hitting a pair and not allowing a hit. With the seven shutout innings, she now has accrued 15 consecutive scoreless innings.

In the second game, the Big Red found the scoreboard early, as Andrea Carella, the leadoff hitter in the second inning walked, and then stole second and third, before being driven in by Jen Pecorella, giving the visitors the 1-0 lead.

Denison added two more runs in the top of the fourth inning, as the visitors strung together four straight two-out hits, as Pecorella drove in Carella and Ali Silver, giving the Big Red the 3-0 advantage.

The Gators put together a rally in the bottom of the sixth inning, cutting the deficit to one with a pair of runs in the inning. Piranian scored when the Big Red third baseman’s throw to a force out at second base went high, and the ball then scooted between the right fielder’s legs, putting batter Ryan on third. Ptacek’s third hit of the game, a double off the left field wall, drove in Ryan, cutting the deficit to one.

Denison added their fourth run of the game off of a glancing shot off of pitcher Becca Rich’s (Gibsonia/North Allegheny), scoring Pecorella, who led off the inning with a double.

The Gators used another rally in the bottom of the seventh, when leadoff hitter Lasinski reached on an error by the Big Red first baseman. Three straight outs ended the threat, however, for the Gators, as the Blue and Gold fell 4-2.

With the loss, the Gators fall to 8-6 in the NCAC, and in a three-way tie for the final two playoff spots, but lose out to the pair on tiebreakers.

The Gators end the season with two non-conference double headers, as the team faces off against Washington & Jefferson on Sunday, April 30, before traveling to Berea, Ohio to face off against the Yellow Jackets of Baldwin-Wallace College on May 2.

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