WEST HAVEN, Conn. – Maria Palmeri singled up the middle in the bottom of the eighth inning to lead top-seeded LIU-Post to a 3-2 walk-off victory over the Southern New Hampshire University softball team in extra innings in a second-round NCAA East Regional game Saturday morning.

The Pioneers remain unbeaten on the weekend and advance to the championship round tomorrow, while the Penmen will play the winner of No. 4 New Haven/No. 8 Wilmington for a 4:00 p.m. elimination game today.

With each team pitching its respective conference pitcher of the year, the game proved to be a dual in the circle, as it remained scoreless until the sixth inning.

With no score through five full innings, Cara Daly (Plainville, Mass.) was the difference for the Penmen when she registered her third homerun of the season in the top of the inning to score two and give SNHU a 2-0 lead. Holly Eicher (Stoneham, Mass.) recorded her first hit of the day, with a single up the middle, before Daly came up and blasted a shot over the left field fence to give the visitors the lead.

The Penmen took care of the Pioneers' side in the bottom of the inning, and took the two-run advantage into the seventh.

After getting three quick outs in the top half of the seventh, LIU-Post answered in the bottom of the inning scoring twice to tie it up. Swantek led-off with a single up the middle, and McCoy walked to advance her to second. With two on and no outs, Palmeri singled to Maloof, who handled the grounder easily, but was unable to make a clean throw to first base, committing an error and allowing Swantek and McCoy to cross home plate and tie it up to force extra innings.

In the top of the eighth, Southern New Hampshire was able to get three runners on base, but could not convert anything into runs. Katie Caruso (Newton, Mass.) singled through the right side with one out to get on, and Lindsey Bolduc (Londonderry, N.H.) followed with a fielder's choice for the second out. Eicher then singled to move runners to first and third, but Liz Weber put away the last batter with her fourth strikeout of the game to get out of the inning.

The Pioneers' bats continued into the bottom of the inning when Gonzalez led-off with a single up the middle. Hagenah then reached on another Penmen error, and both runners advanced into scoring position on second and third. Gonzalez tried for home when Swantek hit a grounder to the shortstop, but Caruso was able to throw her out and get the second out of the inning. With Hagenah on third, McCoy worked a walk to get on and setup the walk-off. Palmeri took the first two pitches for a 1-1 count, but swung on the third, connecting for a single up the middle to plate Hagenah and score the third run of the game en route to the victory.

Maloof went 7.2 innings, striking out four and giving up six hits, and three runs, none of which we earned. Weber pitched a complete game for the Pioneers, fanning four batters and giving up six hits and two runs in the winning effort.

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