Falcons Beat #17 Coe 2-0, Head To National Championship Monday
Posted: 5/17/2009
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It was all smiles for freshman Jessica Rhoads (left) and junior Abby Bergakker at the conclusion of Sunday's win over Coe, as Messiah heads to the national title game.

Montclair, NJ – At this point, members of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association’s NCAA Division III All-American selection committee must be second guessing themselves.

Because it simply doesn’t get much better than this.

For the second time in as many days, freshman pitching sensation Jessica Rhoads was absolutely spectacular at the 2009 NCAA Division III Softball Championship, striking out 19 total batters while blasting a two-run homer to help the Falcons to a 2-0 win over 17th-ranked Coe College Sunday afternoon – earning Messiah (42-4) a trip to Monday’s national championship game in the process.

The Falcons will play the winner of Monday’s Gustavus Adolphus College-Coe tilt in its first national championship game appearance at approximately 2:30 p.m.

Rhoads – an egregious omission from this year’s All-American list – moved her pitching record to 27-1 with her latest win, tossing her fifth complete-game one-hitter of the year against the Kohawks while setting a new single-game mark for K’s with the aforementioned 19 sit-downs. Her first-inning home run was eerily similar to her clutch two-run single against Gustavus Adolphus Saturday afternoon – a hit that would stand up in Messiah’s 2-0 semi-final win over the Gusties.

Sunday, however, Rhoads reached a new level of efficiency, as Coe placed only a third-inning bunt single as its lone hit of the day.

“Jess just pitched incredible today,” said Messiah head coach Amy Weaver. “Nineteen strikeouts and only one hit, on a bunt? She has taken it up a notch every day. She just pitched incredible. I don’t know how you can pitch any better than that.”

Coe head coach Bob Timmons agreed.

“She threw a heck of a ballgame against us,” he said. “She’s the best pitcher that I’ve seen this year. She might be the best pitcher that I’ve seen in 24 years of coaching. She never got herself in trouble. We were swinging at it, but we just couldn’t make contact. We had very few foul balls, and we were just swinging at air. She had great command and movement today and we just couldn’t put it in play. It was an outstanding performance on her behalf.”

If her performance in the pitching circle weren’t enough, Rhoads again helped herself by blasting her sixth home run of the season in the first inning – one of just three Messiah hits on the game.

Following a leadoff double from freshman Abi Buchler, sophomore Rebekkah Funk laid down a gorgeous sacrifice bunt to move Buchler to third. Freshman Jaclyn Merkel then fouled out to the Kohawks’ catcher, putting Rhoads to the plate with two outs retired.

The Dillsburg, Pa. native then took a 1-2 pitch from Coe starting pitcher Ashlee Simon deep over the left-centerfield wall.

As the Messiah dugout erupted, it was unknown that the game’s only scores had crossed the plate.

Simon (24-5), as it would be, would pitch a gem from there on out as well.

The Kohawk freshman gave up just one additional hit following the first inning of work, as a third-inning single from Buchler and a seventh-inning walk issued to Rhoads would account for Messiah’s only other base runners of the game.

“We were one strike away from getting out of that first inning, and if we get that strike we might still be playing,” Timmons said. “Ashlee threw a good ballgame. We didn’t answer the bell in terms of putting up runs on the board in the first inning like they did. Other than that, it was a great ballgame thrown by Ashlee. But you don’t win many when you don’t put any runs up.”

Rhoads made positively certain that would be the case, as Coe put a total of just three runners on base (a walk and a hit batter accounted for the others). The Kohawks’ Amanda Hanson dribbled a two-out bunt down the third base line in the third inning to register the only hit of the game for the designated home team, while Rhoads struck out the next batter to get out of the inning.

That scenario repeated itself time and time again, as Rhoads’ previous single-game strikeout record stood at 16 K’s – a number she had recorded three times on the year.

“I thought we tried to make some adjustments on her,” Timmons said, “but we didn’t put the ball in play with any authority at all. We had some called third strikes in the first inning, but after that she kept throwing it by us and we kept swinging at it.”

Rhoads recorded the final 12 outs via strikeout, earning Messiah a trip to Monday’s title game with little drama.

“Before the game I was having trouble getting loose, so we went and put heat on my arm,” Rhoads said. “After that, my arm was as loose as it could be.”

Messiah will look to ride Rhoads’ right arm again Monday, as the World Series’ lone unbeaten will face a team it has already defeated once before: Gustavus Adolphus has erupted for 20 runs in four games at the championships, while Timmons said his team “would love to have another shot” at Messiah and Rhoads.

While the Falcons equaled a season low with just three hits Sunday, Weaver said she believes her club will be ready.

“We only had a couple of hits today, but we look at the whole at-bat, and we had some kids hit the ball solid even though they were foul balls or balls that were caught,” Weaver said. “If we’re making solid contact, we feel good about that. The pitching is going to be tough at this point. Not everyone is going to go 2-for-3 like you might during the regular season. (Simon) was a good pitcher. She had our hitters swinging at the rise ball. I kept telling our players not to swing at (the rise ball), but they were, so she just kept throwing it. That’s to her credit.”

Messiah now has a total of two chances to win the 2009 NCAA Division III Softball National Championship: If the Falcons were to be beaten Monday afternoon, a winner-take-all, grand finale championship game would be played Tuesday at 11 a.m.

Weaver prefers to think only about Monday, however.

“One game at a time,” she said. “That’s what we’ve been doing all year long. We’ve got to prepare to play one game Monday, and that’s what we’re thinking about. I feel that everyone on this team knows their role and everyone fills in where they need to. It doesn’t matter what, where, why or when. Whether it’s a pinch hit or other pitchers stepping up when Jess got hurt, people have just stepped in and done the absolute best that they can. We tell them all of the time that that’s all that we ask. It just seems to be working, so I’m pretty excited about it.”

All 2009 NCAA Division III Softball Championships games are taking place on the campus of Montclair State University at the Montclair State University Softball Stadium. Fans can follow all the action from the eight-team, double-elimination tournament at the official website of the 2009 NCAA Division III Softball Championship. Live Stats and Live Video Casts are also available.