BRONX, N.Y. – George Mason needed a marathon, but the fourth-seeded Patriots continued their magical run Saturday, hoisting the Atlantic 10 Softball Championship trophy for the first time with a 6-3, 10-inning victory over No. 2 Loyola Chicago in the championship final at Bahoshy Field.
The All-Championship team featured the Dayton duo of Izzy Kemp and Emma Schutter, Saint Louis' Gabbie Kowalik and Cami Newbanks, Loyola's Sydney Barnett, Madison Ebeling and Peyton Pepkowski and Mason's Carly Cooper, Maddy Myers, Aly Rayle and Haley Taormina. Notably, Rayle, the reigning A-10 Pitcher of the Year, clinched the Most Outstanding Player honors off 33.0 innings pitched with just five earned runs allowed on 22 hits and two walks along with 39 total strikeouts.
Mason entered Saturday from the winner’s bracket, having claimed three straight victories in the double-elimination tournament. But the Ramblers, who needed two wins to earn the trophy, stole game one on a two-run eighth inning walk-off home run by Madison Ebeling. Not to be denied, Mason turned back a late game-two rally from Loyola and scored three runs in the 10th frame to capture the A-10 crown and the NCAA Regional bid.
Nicole Bechtel socked a two-run double to left in the top of the 10th, scoring Marla Bozek and Charlotte Montgomery, both of whom led off the inning with walks. Bechtel’s RBI proved to be the difference in game two, as pitcher Aly Rayle and the Mason defense ended the game in the bottom of the frame.
The Patriots turned to Carly Cooper in the circle for game two following a week of brilliant complete game performances by Rayle. Cooper tossed a no-hitter through the first five innings, allowing Mason to build a 3-0 lead. The Patriots scored twice in the first when Maddy Myers doubled and scored Rachel Warrens. A third run came in the fourth on Zoe Vozick’s RBI single.
But the Ramblers tied it in the bottom of the sixth and eventually forced the extra innings with four singles and two walks.
Ebeling forced game two in the most dramatic fashion, her walk-off home-run heroics overcoming an extra-innings lead Mason had established in the top half of the eighth. Facing a two-out, two-strike pitch from Patriots ace and tournament-dominant Aly Rayle, Ebeling belted a screamer over the left field wall. Tori Boysen, whose leadoff single broke a streak of 18 straight outs by Rayle, also scored, forcing the if necessary game.
Rayle had dazzled up to that point, throwing a perfect game from the second through the seventh innings. Her only blemish prior to the decisive eighth was a first-inning bases-loaded wild pitch that plated Riley Owens. She gave up two hits in the first three batters she faced, and a two out walk in the first, but then didn’t allow another baserunner until Boysen’s single. Rayle (18-9) took the loss, allowing three runs on nine strikeouts with one walk.
The Ramblers’ Pepkowski (16-11) was equally as effective, earning the win with six hits and two earned runs surrendered, colleting six strikeouts and two walks. She allowed just one hit in the first four innings, and scattered the other five across the remaining four frames.
Mason got the run back in the sixth on an RBI single by Warrens that scored Logan Pickford, who pinch ran for Bechtel after the latter hit a double to left center. The score remained knotted at one until the top of the eighth when Bechtel again reached on a hit to left field, and then scored when Myers doubled to the right-center wall. Bechtel motored around third to beat a throw to the plate that never came, and the Patriots were in control until Ebeling intervened.
Warrens was 2-for-4 to lead Mason, and the Ramblers four hits were shared by four different players, including Ebeling and Boysen.