ERIE, PA – "Survive and Advance" is a good way to describe Rochester's 5-2 victory over SUNY Geneseo in the second round of the NCAA Division III regional softball championships at Penn State Behrend College early Saturday afternoon.
 
Yes, the win puts third-seeded Rochester into the winner's bracket and a late afternoon matchup with top-seeded St. John Fisher College (time TBA –roughly 5:30 pm). Yes, Rochester matches the school record for wins in a season at 33 (33-8 overall). And it was a victory over the regional's #2 seed. Back on March 10, Geneseo swept a doubleheader from Rochester, 1-0, and 6-1, on its own field.
 
The Yellowjackets had to overcome six fielding errors, four of which led to both runs for the Knights (17-9). UR had numerous opportunities to score. The Yellowjackets left 10 runners on base, six in scoring position. The offense was clicking – 14 hits. Five players had multiple hits – led by Jen Carson and Alexis Pope with three apiece. Pope had one RBI and scored one run. Pinch-hitter Erin Bevec had an RBI single in the fourth and came around to score herself later in that inning. Alexis Klee had two hits, the first a run-scoring single that brought home Madi Turner.
 
Carson had three hits – the middle one a two-run single in the fourth. UR scored four times that inning and chased starter Nicole Schwartz. With one down, Pope and Turner singled. Bevec lined a single to center, scoring Pope and sending Turner to third. Klee singled home Turner and advanced to second on the throw. After Marissa Russo popped up, Carson clubbed a single to deep center, scoring two more. Alizah Ayon pinch-hit for Allison Beckwith as the DP in the fifth and was 2-2 (a single in the fifth, a double in the seventh). Ayon, who homered vs. Penn State Behrend yesterday as a pinch-hitter, is 3-3 in the regional.

 
Rochester opened the scoring in the second. Toni Anne Hahn walked, stole second, and scored when Pope guided a double down the right field line.
 
Hannah Leahy earned the victory, her 16^th of the season. She pitched through the first four innings, yielding two hit batsmen and two walks plus a pair of errors. That led to the first run. She left after the first batter of the fifth reached on an error and a pinch-hitter clouted a double to center putting runners at second and third. She fanned three, walked one, and hit two to accompany three hits allowed.
 
Emily Sharlach relieved. She induced a popout immediately. The cleanup hitter, Taylor Riccardi grounded to short. Both runners started to move to cause a rundown hoping for a misplay. It worked, as the ball was dropped on a tag play at the plate. Sharlach ended the inning with a fly out to left. In all, she set down eight in a row. With two down in the seventh, back to back errors put runners aboard but Sharlach calmly got Riccardi to foul out to Hannah Keiper, ending the game. Sharlach earned her fifth save of the season (school record) and her second in a row in this regional.
 
In the day's first game, St. John Fisher eliminated host Penn State Behrend, 1-0. Rochester's win vs. Geneseo sets up the Yellowjackets to play the Cardinals in a matchup of 2-0 teams. Geneseo is playing York College (PA) in a mid-afternoon game (after its game vs. UR and before the Yellowjackets face Fisher).
 
The winner of the Fisher-Rochester game moves into the championship round on Sunday. The Rochester-Fisher loser will play the Geneseo-York winner in Sunday's first game. That winner will be the opponent for whichever team is at 3-0 when Sunday arrives.