IAAM A CONFERENCE SOFTBALL FINAL FOUR

  

By Mike Buchanan
mbuchanan@digitalsports.com

 

The IAAM A Conference softball play-offs are down to the Final Four, and there are two great match-ups on tap for today, weather permitting. No. 4-seed Seton Keough visits rival No. 1-seed Archbishop Spalding in one semi-final.  On the other side of town, No. 6 Institute of Notre Dame visits Catonsville Senior Center where it will face No. 2-seed Mount de Sales.

The winners earn a ticket to Sunday’s championship game at Harford Community College, at 3:00.

Here is a quick look at Thursday’s semi-finals:

No. 4 Seton Keough (6-6) @ No. 1 Archbishop Spalding (12-0)

The Gators are still the defending champs until someone knocks them off, and the Cavaliers aim to do just that. Spalding blitzed through the A Conference this season, going undefeated.  Keough was in the middle of the pack at 6-6, but don’t think for a second that an upset can’t occur.

Coach Dave Boyer’s Keough team has played well of late, evidenced by their 12-0 shutout win over Pallotti in the quarter-finals on Tuesday. The Gators had great pitching, lively bats and solid defense.  That combination can win a lot of games.

In addition, both games between the two were close contests. Back on March 18th, Spalding won 4-1, as Elaine Nescio allowed just one run and four hits.  On April 8th, the Cavs needed nine innings to put away the Gators. A 2-2 tie went to extra innings. Both teams scored once in the eighth, and Spalding got the game-winner in the ninth.

Coach Paul O’Brien had all the pieces lined up.  Hoping – and/or expecting – to have a first-round bye, he had a tough non-league game lined up versus Howard earlier in the week, a game which Spalding won, 1-0, a perfect tune-up for the play-offs.  And he scheduled another tough game before that, beating Sussex Tech of Delaware, 4-1. He hopes to have his team battle-tested for the big games this week.

With Nescio sure to get the start, Boyer will have to hope that his team can put together some runs with the liklihood of getting few hits.  Keough got seven hits in the two games combined.  Boyer’s squad will have to get the key hit and take advantage of limited scoring opportunities against a pitcher like Nescio.

 

No. 6 IND (3-9) @ No. 2 Mount de Sales (8-4)

Mount de Sales will have the tough challenge of beating a common opponent three times in one season.  They did it against Mercy, ousting the Magic on Tuesday.  However, IND, which had lost to John Carroll twice, proved how tough it can be to accomplish that feat.  The Indians won their game at JC, beating the Patriots the third time around, 4-3.

Coach Pete Waskiewics’ Sailors won the first meeting on April 1st by a score of 7-4.  To prove it was no April Fool’s joke, de Sales won the next as well on May 1st, 3-1.  Holly Whitehead went the distance in both games, and added a double at-bat in the latter game.

IND Coach Greg Ehrman has to hope for better defense.  His team commited five errors in the two games combined, while de Sales played error-free defense.

Waskiewics is hoping to avoid the big hit.  IND slugger Gabby Devaud homered in one of the games, and she had the two-run home run that was the game-winner at John Carroll in the upset win in the quarter-finals.  It would certainly help matters if Whitehead can keep Devaud in the park.

The winner earns a spot in the finals, but each must get past a tough opponent to do so.
 

Below is the A Conference bracket:

http://www.sportscombine.com/scripts/p_tu_8tm_single_elim.asp?BR=3818&TU=734