Box Score

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Senior right fielder Shawna Mallory (Simi Valley, Calif.) drove in sophomore left fielder Julie Muscarella (Suffield, Conn.) with a two-out single in the bottom of the sixth inning to provide the margin of victory for the Southern Connecticut State University softball team in a 3-2 win over St. Joseph's (Ind.) in its College World Series opener on Wednesday. The rally made a winner out of senior pitcher Jayme Larson (Aurora, Colo.), who allowed no earned runs and just two hits while improving to 26-3 on the year.

With the win, the Owls captured their 43rd victory of the year and set a new single-season record in that department. SCSU (43-11) will now face the winner of the Central Oklahoma/Flagler game on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. SJC will play the loser of that contest in a 12:30 p.m. contest.

Southern Connecticut, playing as the home team, jumped out to a 2-0 lead in its first at-bat. Junior Brittany Bucko (Wallington, N.J.) smacked a leadoff home run over the left field fence to open the scoring. It was her 19th home run of the year.

The Owls strung together another run later in the frame. Alyssa Downs (Seymour, Conn.) reached on an error with two outs and came in to score on a RBI single to left center by Kate Hoffman (Orange, Conn.).



For a while, it looked like those two runs would be more than enough for Larson. She retired 14 in a row at one point before the Owls' defense faltered in the sixth. St. Joseph's scored two runs on three SCSU errors and a hit batter.

However, Southern Connecticut wasted little time in regaining the lead. Muscarella singled and alertly moved up to second on a bobble by the SJC center fielder. Mallory then bounded a single up the middle to score Muscarella for a 3-2 lead.

Larson the retired the side in order in the seventh to secure the win.