Box Score
PURCHASE, N.Y. – Second-seeded Misericordia trailed almost all game long against third-seeded King's (Pa.), but Kristi Seiler changed all that with a three-run walk-off homer in the bottom of the seventh inning to lift the Cougars to a 7-5 victory over the Lady Monarchs in game two of the 2012 Freedom Conference Softball Championships, hosted by Manhattanville College at Manhattanville Field.
Down to their last at-bat, the Cougars did not make an out in the seventh, as Amanda Polaha led off with a single and Caitlin Cromley followed with a walk. After Brittany Haight came on in relief for King's, Seiler barely stayed alive on a change up that missed just high before crushing the next offering over the center-field fence for the walk off win.
Seiler finished 1 for 3 with that three-run homer, while Cromley finished 1 for 2 with a run scored and an RBI. Polaha had a homer of her own had had a team-leading two hits and two runs scored.
King's was led by Jenn Harnischfeger, who led all players with three hits in four at-bats and also drove in three runs.
After Polaha opened the scoring in the bottom of the first with a solo homer, King's came back with three unearned runs in the second to take the lead. After a dropped fly ball started the inning, Rachel Zinni singled home one run and then came home herself on a two-run double by Harnischfeger.
The teams traded runs for the next few innings, as the Lady Monarchs scored once each in the fourth and sixth and the Cougars posted single tallies in the third, fourth and sixth. King's missed a chance to expand its one-run lead in the top of the seventh, when the squad loaded the bases with none out, but Cromley buckled down to strike out two and induce a ground out to get out of the frame unscathed and set up the dramatic conclusion.
Cromley (16-8) earned the win, allowing five runs (two earned) on 11 hits in seven innings. Annie Erndl (9-5) took the loss, allowing six runs on eight hits in six innings, departing just before Haight let up the game-winning homer to Seiler.
