Women's Softball
Softball: Sweep of Oberlin sends Big Red to NCAC Tournament
Date: April 27, 2008
Location: GRANVILLE
Claire Kopko became Denison's all-time leader in hits on Sunday versus Oberlin.
The Denison Big Red closed out their 2008 regular season with a doubleheader sweep of Oberlin College and, in the process, clinched a spot in next week's North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament.
Denison will enter the four-team tournament as the No. 3 seed with a record of 8-6. Denison won a tiebreaker over No. 4 seed Hiram. The double elimination tournament will begin on Friday (May 2) in Meadville, Pa. Top-seeded Allegheny College will host the tournament.
In today's games with Oberlin, senior pitcher Bri Scrofano (Longs, S.C./McDowell) started Denison off with a dominating performance in game one. Scrofano fired a complete game one-hitter and struck out eight of her 22 batters faced as the Big Red rolled to a 7-0 win.
Ali Silver (Baltimore, Md./Kenwood), Sam Rumschlag (Carmel, Ind./Cathedral) and Erica Evans (Worthington, Ohio/Thomas Worthington) all had two hits for Denison and sophomore Alex Murray (Mayfield Heights, Ohio/NDCL) blasted her sixth home run of the season to lead Denison at the plate.
In the second half of the twinbill, DU needed only five innings to dispatch the Yeowomen 8-0. Claire Kopko (Washington, Pa./Trinity) was 3-for-3 and became Denison's all-time hits leader in the process. She has 169 career base hits but has a teammate hot on her heels. After a five-hit day, Silver trails Kopko by only one hit heading into the postseason.
Joining Kopko and Silver on the hit parade was Ali Clark (3-for-3) and Brie Berkopec (Mars, Pa./Mars) who blasted a two-run homer in the third inning.
Rumschlag picked up the victory as DU improved to 22-10. They will face No. 2 seed, Ohio Wesleyan in the opening game of the conference tournament next Friday at a time to be determined.