#4 West Virginia Wesleyan 4, #5 Molloy 0 | Final Stats
SALEM, Va. – West Virginia Wesleyan took control early and got behind a solid pitching performance from Hannah Vet to post a 4-0 win over Molloy on Thursday at the NCAA Division II Softball Championship.
The Bobcats (50-8) advance to take on Angelo State in the winner’s bracket tomorrow at 11 a.m. Molloy (37-17) will play Humboldt State tomorrow at 4 p.m.
Tori Pogue opened the game with a bunt single, and then came home on a squeeze bunt from Olivia Gore. Morgan Bruce hit a towering home run in the fourth and then Gore hit a two-run blast in the fifth to cap the scoring for the Bobcats.
“The run in the first inning was critical,” West Virginia Wesleyan head coach Steve Warner said. “I knew if we got a runner on third we were going to try and squeeze, and even though our bunts haven’t been good this year, but Olivia did a good job of getting it down.
“Morgan’s home run gave us a little bit of breathing room, and Olivia was able to turn on one to make it 4-0,” Warner continued.
The single run in the first was really all that Vet (27-4) would need. She threw just 79 pitches (58 strikes) and surrendered just two hits in the game, both of which game in the fourth inning. She had five 1-2-3 innings.
“We didn’t need much with the way Hannah was throwing today,” Warner said. “She averages 13 or 14 groundballs in a game, and the girls played great defense today.”
“She was throwing a really nice dropball,” said Molly’s Milan Botte. “We see good a good dropball pitcher once in a blue moon, so it’s tough for us to adjust to that when we usually see something straight. She wasn’t blowing it by us, but we didn’t make the adjustments soon enough.”
Gore finished the day 2-for-3 with three of the team’s four RBI. Pogue was 2-for-3 at the top of the order for the Bobcats.
Olivia Banulski and Botte had the two hits for Molloy. Chelsea Hawks (20-12) took the loss giving up four runs on seven hits in five innings pitched. Jenna Turato pitched a clean sixth in relief for the Lions.