MERION STATION, Pa. - The Saint Joseph's softball team is headed to the 2016 Atlantic 10 Championship. The Hawks topped St. Bonaventure 4-2 in the first game of a doubleheader on Sunday to qualify for the six-team conference postseason tournament.
St. Bonaventure took game two, 7-4, to cap the regular season for both teams.
Finishing with a 10-12-1 mark in the A-10, the Hawks earned the fifth seed for the A-10 Championship and will face fourth seed Saint Louis at noon on Wednesday. This year's conference tournament is being held at George Washington's Athletic Complex at Mount Vernon starting this Wednesday, May 11 through Saturday, May 14.
In the opener, the Bonnies struck first as they manufactured a run against SJU starter Madison Clarke as Emily McDonough scored on a ground out by Kelli Rohan.
Saint Joseph's (22-24-1, 10-12-1 A-10) answered in the bottom of the second as junior Kaylyn Zierke led off with a solo home run to left center to tie the game at 1-1.
Senior Brandi Harkness gave the Hawks a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the third with a sacrifice fly that scored Amanda Kulp.
St. Bonaventure answered back in the top of the fourth though to tied the game at 2-2 as Rohan scored off of an RBI single by Morgan Phillips.
Harkness again gave Saint Joseph's the lead though, drilling a solo home run to center field in the bottom of the fifth to make it a 3-2 game.
Saint Joseph's added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth as senior Kerrie Kortmann scored on a sacrifice fly by Sarah Yoos to push the lead to 4-2.
Senior Anna Lauterbach, who replaced Clarke in the fifth, worked three scoreless innings, capping the game with a strike out to seal the Hawks' tournament berth. Lauterbach improved to 3-8 on the season with the win, striking out four over 3.0 innings.
At the plate, Harkness was 2-for-2 with two RBIs and a run scored, while Kulp, Genovese and Taryn Grober each added two hits apiece.
In game two, St. Bonaventure jumped out to a 2-0 lead in game two as it took advantage of a Hawk error and plated a pair of runs in the top of the third against.
Zierke got the Hawks on the board in the bottom of the third with an RBI double to center field that scored Yoos from second to make it 2-1. Senior Cyndi Wilson followed with a double to right to score Zierke and tie the game at 2-2.
St. Bonaventure (15-32, 8-14 A-10) regained the lead in the top of the fourth on a solo home run by Katie Sinclair to make it 3-2 in favor of the Bonnies.
A sacrifice fly by Genovese scored Grober in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game, but St. Bonaventure answered back in the fifth.
The Bonnies' Morgan Phillips hit a two-run double down the left field line to push the visitors ahead 5-3. Following a walk, Emily Belfield doubles to left, scoring Phillips to make it 6-3 in favor of SBU.
A sacrifice fly by Yoos in the bottom of the sixth plated Kerrie Kortmann to make it 6-4.
But that would be as close as the Hawks would get as St. Bonaventure added an insurance run in the top of the seventh and kept SJU off the board in the bottom of the inning to end th contest.
