Rentzel Lifts Blue Devils to Victory with Walk-Off Hit

Junior Evie Rentzel of the Central Connecticut softball team ripped a single up the middle in the bottom of the eighth inning to plate senior Kat Malcolm and lift the Blue Devils to a 2-1, walk-off victory over the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights in the first round of the NEC Tournament on Thursday afternoon. With the victory, the Blue Devils improve to 29-12 overall on the year and move on to face off with the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. in the winner's bracket final. The tournament is being hosted by Robert Morris at the North Athletic Complex in Moon Township, PA and all of the action can be viewed live, for free, on NECFrontRow.com.

NEC Tournament Game #2 - CCSU vs. FDU Highlights
NEC Softball Championship Headquarters

The Knights (16-19) jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the game with a run in the top of the first inning off CCSU starter and All-Conference First Teamer Laura Messina. A lead off walk by FDU's Madelaine Wilen followed by a single from Alex Portesi got the Knights off to a hot start. Wilen and Portesi then stole third and second, respectively, before Bryana Dorado hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Wilen and put FDU up 1-0.

The 1-0 FDU lead would stand for the next six innings as the Blue Devils could only muster two hits and struck out six times off FDU starter Megan Reiner, but Central would finally break through.

With the Blue Devils down to their final out and Rentzel on second base in the bottom of the seventh inning, junior Mackenzie Keyes lofted a ball over the third baseman's head and into shallow left field, allowing Rentzel to beat the throw home and slide in safely to tie the game 1-1. Rentzel led off the inning with a double to right centerfield to begin the comeback.

The run forced extra-innings and set up the dramatic hit by Rentzel in the bottom half of the eighth inning. With two quick outs to start the frame, Malcolm worked a great at-bat and drew a walk to start the rally. Junior Eileen Purcell followed with a sharp single up the middle to move Malcolm into scoring positing and bring up Rentzel. Rentzel then smacked the 1-2 offering from Reiner back up the middle, past the diving FDU shortstop, and brought home Malcolm standing up from second base for the walk-off 2-1 victory.

Rentzel finished the contest as the only player on either team to record a multi-hit game. She went 2-for-4 with a double, RBI and run scored. Keyes was 1-for-3 with the other RBI and Malcolm finished 1-for-2 with a run scored to pace the CCSU offense.

Messina picked up the win, the 99th of her career, twirling a complete game four-hitter and allowed just the lone run in the top of the first inning. She walked one and struck out three, giving her 266 strike outs on the season to tie the CCSU single season record she set one year ago. She needed just 97 pitches (67 strikes) over eight innings of work to improve her record to 25-8 on the season.

Reiner took the tough loss, pitching 7.2 innings and allowing two runs on six hits while striking out six to fall to 11-7 on the year.

The Blue Devils will return to action with the winner's bracket final tomorrow, May 8, at 10:30 a.m. against the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds.