SPARKILL, N.Y. (May 6, 2022) – Despite an RBI from senior Ylannah Bowman, the No. 4 seeded Mercy College softball team dropped a 4-1 decision to No. 3 seeded Molloy College in Game Four of the ECC Softball Championship on Friday afternoon at Spartan Field.

The Mavericks (11-38) season comes to an end in the ECC Championship for the second straight year, while the Lions (23-32) will face No. 1 seed STAC at 1:30 p.m.

Bowman went 2-for-3 with an RBI and senior Alexis Crawford and freshman Victoria Seppala both went 2-for-3. Junior Hailey Puglia and sophomore Shannon Sisco both went 1-for-4. Junior Alexi Benson pitched a complete game with three earned runs allowed and four strikeouts to take the loss.

Molloy was led by Amanda King who went 1-for-3 with a home run. Courtney Greene allowed one run in seven innings to earn the win.

A pitcher's duel broke out between Benson and Greene with game remaining scoreless until the bottom of the fifth. Seppala led off the bottom of the fifth with a single and Crawford walked to put runners on first and second. Sisco then singled to load the bases with no one out. After a double play, Bowman singled to left field scoring Crawford to give Mercy a 1-0 lead.

Molloy loaded the bases in the top of the sixth, but Benson got a groundout to end the inning without allowing a run. After Mercy went down in order in the sixth, Molloy would score four runs in the top of the seventh to take a 4-1 lead. King would tie the game with a home run to center field and Natalie Moussa later doubled home the go-ahead run to make it 2-1. The Lions tacked on two more runs following an Akemi Poyer RBI single and Mercy error to take a 4-1 lead.

Crawford singled in the bottom of the seventh but was left stranded at first and Molloy earned the 4-1 win.

Mercy had eight hits and four errors and Molloy had 11 hits and no errors.