Box Score FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Vanessa Cardoza (Santa Ana, Calif./Ocean View) had two hits, but the fifth-seeded Monmouth University softball team was defeated by top-seeded Marist, 4-0, Thursday afternoon at Alumni Softball Field on the campus of Fairfield University. With the loss, the Hawks (22-20) will face No. 6 Manhattan tomorrow morning in a first pitch tentatively scheduled for 9 a.m. Marist (27-22) moves on in the winners bracket to face Iona at 11:30 a.m.
Cardoza had a single in the 1st and a double in the 6th. Rachel Shotzbarger (Saugus, Calif./Saugus) also added a first-inning single, but that was all Marist pitcher Melanie White would allow on the day. Justene Reyes (Carson, Calif./Warren) was hit by a pitch and Kayleena Flores (Atwater, Calif./Buhach Colony) also walked on the day.
White hurled a complete-game three-hit shutout, striking out eight. Sydney Underhill (Temecula, Calif./Chaparral) took the loss, allowing four earned runs on eight hits and a walk. She struck out six.
The Hawks threatened in the top of the 1st, loading the bases with two outs on singles by Cardoza and Shotzbarger and a hit by pitch for Reyes. But Flores' sinking liner just hung up long enough for the center fielder to record the final out.
The teams remained scoreless until the bottom of the 4th, when Marist pushed across four runs. Kyrsten Van Natta led off the inning with a single and stole second. She then scored on Alyssa Zahka's double to right center. Janna Korak, Nicole Cheek and Haley Birnbaum followed with RBI singles to make it 4-0 after four.
Cardoza doubled with one out in the 6th, but White got a strikeout and a lineout to extinguish the threat. Underhill held the Red Foxes scoreless in the bottom of the 6th, but the Hawks went down in order in the 7th to end the game.
