ITHACA, N.Y. – Top-seeded and NFCA #21 Ithaca College scored single runs in the fourth and fifth innings and that was enough to defeat the third-seeded Manhattanville College softball team by a 2-0 score in game three of the Ithaca, New York Regional of the NCAA Div. III Softball Championships, held at Ithaca's Doris Kostrinsky Field on Saturday afternoon.
 
With the victory, Ithaca (30-9) advances into the championship round, where the team will need to win one of two possible games tomorrow to claim the regional title. Manhattanville (25-15) will face the winner of today's Ramapo-Bay Path game in an elimination contest later today at approximately 5:00 p.m., weather permitting.
 
The Valiant bats went silent against Ithaca's Haley Congdon, recording just one hit in the second inning off the bat of graduate student Dolores Diemicke (North Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge). Congdon struck out six and walked two in the win, while Valiant senior Alycia Feeney (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster) took the loss despite allowing only two runs on eight hits with six strikeouts.
 
After a perfect inning for both pitchers, Feeney encountered her first trouble in the second frame after a leadoff single. The Bombers put a runner on third with just one out, but the senior induced an infield groundout and then got a called third strike to end the inning.
 
Manhattanville put two runners in scoring position in the second but could not score, and then just missed a run in the third when a shot by freshman Brooke Franson (Newport Beach, Calif./Corona del Mar) cleared the fence about a foot to the left of the left-field foul pole.
 
Ithaca put the first run on the board in the top of the fourth on an RBI double down the leftfield line by Abby Shields, but Feeney limited the damage with a pair of strikeouts with a runner in scoring position. The Bombers added another run in the fifth inning thanks to a RBI groundout by Vanessa Brown.