May 9, 2004

Garden City, N.Y. - Mansfield topped Georgian Court 10-2 in the ECAC Championship title game. Georgian Court earned their way into the final with a 2-0 victory over Adelphi. Mansfield's Sytiva Seitz (Dallastown, P.A.) was named the championships Most Valuable Player.

Game Five - Shelia Feldman (Santa Clara, CA) pitched a no-hitter through eight innings but Georgian Court came out on top in nine innings. The game was scoreless after seven innings and as the game moved into extra innings the international tie-breaker rule was put into effect. Georgian Court started the ninth with a runner on second, and Anna Leighty (Carneys Point, N.J.) drove the runner in to give the Lions a 1-0 edge. Then Kimberly Griffiths (Tuckerton, N.J.) singled, driving in Leighty and giving Georgian Court a 2-0 lead. The Panthers could not score in the bottom of the ninth and fell 2-0.

Georgian Court (24-13) had three hits. Adelphi (27-21) had five hits and one error.

Game Six - By virtue of their win over Adelphi Georgian Court advanced to the finals against Mansfield. This game also went to extra innings and the international tie-breaker again came into play. The Lions came up in the top of the eighth and had a runner on second. Ashley Wierema (Mundelein, IL) advanced to third on a ground out and then scored on Erin Myers (Hamilton, N.J.) sacrifice fly to give Georgian Court a 1-0 lead. Mansfield could not score in the bottom of the eighth giving Georgian Court the win and forcing a seventh game.

Sherry Keech (Glencoe, Ontario) pitched a five-hitter to keep Georgian Court alive and pick up her second win in a row and third in two days. Georgian Court (25-13) had two hits. Mansfield (26-15) had five hits.

Game Seven - The bats came alive in game seven as the two teams combined for 16 hits and 12 runs. Georgian Court opened the scoring in the first inning when Krista Gilbert (Harriston, Ontario) reached on an error that scored Jennifer McGovern (Forked River, N.J.). But Mansfield exploded in the top of the second to five runs. Heather Long (Pottstown, PA) started things when she doubled, scoring a run to tie the game at one. Long and Jacklyn Laskowski (Olyphant, PA) both scored on an error to make it 3-1. Seitz then homered, pushing Mansfield's lead to 5-1.

Georgian Court got a run back in the bottom of the third when Griffiths singled, scoring Katy Stefanidou (Princeton, N.J.). But Mansfield put the game out of reach in the top of the fourth when Seitz hit her second home run of the game, scoring two runs and putting Mansfield up 7-2. The Mountaineers would take on two more runs in the top of the fifth and another run in the top of the sixth to come away with a 10-2 victory in six innings.

Seitz was named ECAC Championships MVP. ECAC Mid-Atlantic Champion Mansfield (27-15) had 14 hits and one error. ECAC Mid-Atlantic Runner-up Georgian Court (25-14) had two hits and one error.