Box Score GLASSBORO, N.J. – Junior Candace Whittemore (Montpelier, Va. / Patrick Henry) batted in the lone score of the game in the sixth inning of the #1 seeded Yellow Jackets' 1-0 win in the first round of the Glassboro Regional in the NCAA Tournament on the campus of Rowan University. Freshman starting pitcher Madie Rhoads (Portsmouth, Va. / Nansemond River) struck out ten while not allowing a walk or a run and just four hits, securing her 13th win of the season.
Baserunners were at a premium in the powerhouse pitching duel. Only one runner between the two teams had made it past second base – before the sixth inning; Staten Island had gotten runners at the corners with two outs in the top of the fourth before Rhoads got the Dolphins' Gabriele DeLeon to strike out to end the frame.
With the game barreling towards an exciting finish, Randolph-Macon began the bottom of the sixth inning with a hunger to end it themselves. Junior Brittany LaPrade (Quinton, Va. / New Kent) singled to start the inning off. Fellow junior, Sarah Cimring (Chesapeake, Va. / Great Bridge), stepped in after the hit to pinch run for LaPrade at first base. Junior Kerstin Roth (Yorktown, Va. / Grafton) hit into a fielder's choice where Cimring was taken off the basepaths, but Roth remained at first. That proved to be the critical run as Whittemore stepped in and delivered a two-out shot to right center, scoring Roth and pulling into second herself. Whittemore tallied her 10th RBI of the season with the hit.
Rhoads finished the game out in the top of the seventh with a ground out, a strikeout and a foul out.
Outside of LaPrade and Whittemore's hits in the bottom of the sixth, three other Yellow Jackets recorded base hits. Roth, junior Savannah Wood (Tappahannock, Va. / Essex) and sophomore Sami Davidson (Stafford, Va. / Brooke Point) each recorded one of R-MC's five hits on the afternoon.
With the win, Randolph-Macon will advance to the winner's side of the double-elimination tournament in Glassboro. #1 R-MC will face #3 Penn State-Berks, which got a win over host #2 Rowan 3-2 earlier in the day. That game will begin at 11:00 AM tomorrow. #2 Rowan will face #4 Staten Island in an elimination game at 1:30 PM.
