May 13, 2012
Another Drama Filled Ending for Coast Guard
MANSFIELD, Conn. - Controversy and drama have
followed the Coast Guard Academy softball team in the NCAA
tournament for the last three years and Sunday was no different as
the fifth-seeded Bears battled back from a 4-1 deficit before
falling 5-4 in eight innings to top-seeded and host Eastern
Connecticut in the losers’ bracket final at the Mansfield
Regional of the 2012 NCAA Division III Softball Championship.
The Bears, the New England Women’s and Men’s
Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) tournament champions, finish the
season 28-19. Coast Guard had snapped Eastern Connecticut’s
40-game win streak with a 5-0 win earlier in the tournament. The
Warriors improve to 44-2 on the season.
This season, Coast Guard kept fighting as the Bears had to win
four of its final six conference games just to qualify for the
NEWMAC tournament which they did as the sixth and final seed. The
Bears then lost in the second game of the conference tournament and
again battled back winning five straight games, including three on
the final day to win their third straight NEWMAC tournament
championship.
The Bears took a 1-0 lead when junior Holli Bastinck hit her
team-leading 10th homer of the season off senior All-American Molly
Rathbun.
Coast Guard senior All-American Hayley Feindel,pitching with a
broken middle finger, had been called for several illegal pitches
during the game, all by first base umpire Richie Silva, so in the
fifth when Eastern loaded the bases on three singles, Feindel had
to be extra careful, as an illegal pitch call advances runners a
base and would tie the game. Feindel got a comebacker and she fired
home to get the force for the second out, but Rathbun blasted a
grand slam to left to give the Warriors, ranked second nationally,
a 4-1 lead.
The Bears would not go quietly as in the sixth, freshman Jesse
Richardson and Bastinck drew walks to open the frame before
sophomore Kaitlin Ward tied the game with a three-run homer to
left.
The game remained tied until the top of the eighth when Arielle
Cooper reached on an infield single, was bunted to second and with
two outs scored as Stephanie Johnson beat out an infield single
that was thrown away allowing Cooper to score the go ahead run.
Coast Guard would not go down without a fight as Ward was hit by a
pitch to lead of the home half of the eighth. Following
back-to-back strikeouts, senior Jamie Kim made the last at-bat of
her career a great one, working a walk. Freshman Erin Lisko was
down in the count and fouled off a pitch, but she was called out of
the batter’s box to end the Bears season. It was yet another
wild moment in the NCAA tournament for the team that was endured so
much in the last three NCAA tournaments.
Rathbun allowed six hits and four earned runs while walking five
and fanning eight to improve to 33-2 on the season while Feindel
(21-10) allowed eight hits and four earned runs while not walking a
batter and fanning three to close out her career.
Bastinck had two of the Bears six hit in the game.
Feindel, who missed 16 games this season with the broken finger,
finishes her magnificent career as the NCAA Division III all-time
leader in wins (124), strikeouts (1,457), innings pitched
(1,029.7), games (160) games started (156), complete games (140)
and she is second all-time with 62 shutouts. She has a
career-record of 124-30 with nine no-hitters and a pair of perfect
games.
Feindel and Richardson earned a spot on the regional's
All-tournament team.
The trio of seniors on this team, Feindel, first baseman Maddie
Buchert and second baseman Kim had a four-year record of 139-40-1,
the most wins over a four-year period in school history. Kim played
in a school-record 175 games while Buchert recorded 150 careers
hits.
They led the Bears to four straight NCAA tournament appearances,
three straight NEWMAC regular season (2009, 2010, 2011) and
tournament championships (2010, 2011, 2012). Before that senior
class stepped on campus the Bears had never won a NEWMAC regular
season or tournament championship and never appeared in the NCAA
tournament.
Sophomore third baseman Devin Fellman, who had a huge three-run
homer in the Bears win over Eastern Connecticut earlier in the
tournament, also played the last game of her career as she played
two seasons at St. Petersburg College, a junior college, before
attending the Academy.
Release courtesy of Coast Guard Academy Sports
Information
