Visiting Greyhounds walk off in Super Regional opener

Madison Newhouser's bases-loaded walk-off double to left in the bottom of the eighth scored two and gave Moravian a 6-5 win over DePauw in the opening game of the best-of-three Super Regional series of the NCAA Division III Softball Championship.

The Greyhounds improved to 38-6, while the Tigers dropped to 33-14. The team square off at 10 a.m. tomorrow with Moravian needing just one more win to advance to the Division III finals, while DePauw will have to win two tomorrow.

Moravian trailed DePauw, 4-2, and was down to its final strike in the seventh when Janae Matos delivered a two-run double to the gap in right center to force extra innings.

DePauw's Taylor Golden led off the eighth with a solo homer to right center to give the hosts a 5-4 lead.

In the bottom half of the frame, Dior George led off with a single and Julie Siragusa walked before DePauw starter Kahla Nolan re-entered in the circle for reliever Emma Baldwin. Lizzie Mack drew a walk and Newhouser followed with the game-winning double.

The Greyhounds left four runners on in the opening two innings before breaking through in the third as Mary Schlosbon led off with a single down the left field line and moved to third when George reached on a throwing error on a sacrifice bunt attempt. George then stole second before Newhouser delivered a two-run single to center.

Getz led off the sixth with a single that just got underneath the pitcher's glove and moved to second on a failed pickoff throw. Linsey Button reached on a fielder's choice when the Moravian third baseman dropped the throw from short trying to put out Getz.

Lauren Godden singled up the middle allowing Getz to score before Morgan McCord reached on a fielder's choice that forced Godden. McCord stole second and Taylor Golden delivered a two-run single to right to give the Tigers their first lead at 3-2. Jennifer Ridge singled and moved to second on the throw. Gabby Smart then extended the lead to 4-2 with a single to second.

The Greyhounds put two on in the sixth, but the rally ended when second baseman Ridge made a catch of Julie Siragusa's pop up in short right with her back to the infield.

DePauw totaled eight hits as Getz and Golden each had two, while Moravian totaled nine paced by Schlosbon with three and Newhouser with two.

Baldwin dropped to 12-5 with the loss, while Nolan allowed just two unearned runs in five innings. Josie Novak improved to 19-5 after giving up just one earned run in eight innings.

"Obviously it's a good way to start out you want that first game to build momentum going into tomorrow," Moravian Head Coach John Byrne said.

"I would have liked to have seen us break out a little earlier in the game. I think we left 10 or 11 runners on and threatened every inning so that was kind of disappointing. We had that one bad inning where we blew up, but certainly we showed the resilience to get back in the game tie it up. When they went ahead on that home run I knew we had a big part of our lineup coming up and they certainly stepped up."

"It's a tough way to lose, nobody likes to sit on a loss and go home for the tonight," DePauw head coach Erica Hanrahan said.

"They did the things that mattered throughout the lineup at some key moments. So you have to have hats off to them."