Vicenza rallies from 10 down, eliminates Rota

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — Vicenza made it official on Friday’s second day of the DODDS-Europe softball tournament: The Small Schools division would have a new champion.

The Lady Cougars pinned a 12-11 defeat on defending champion Rota, leaving the Lady Admirals at 0-3 in pool play and knocking them out of contention.

The loss was even worse for Rota because Vicenza used a 10-run inning to erase a 10-run deficit.

"It was awesome," Vicenza sophomore Tess Segura said of the rally.

Vicenza’s 10-run third tied the game at 11. In the final inning, back-to-back doubles by Nina Lintz and Jackie LaMarche produced the game-winning run.

Vicenza advanced to a semifinal game against top-seeded AFNORTH, which was in progress at press time Friday.

In another Smalls Schools game, No. 3 Hohenfels improved to 3-0 and reached the tourney semifinals with a 15-3 victory over Baumholder. Hohenfels was facing Alconbury at press time.

In Division II on Friday, unbeaten Bitburg defeated Wiesbaden 10-0 in one semifinal, and top-seeded Naples hammered Aviano 15-3 in the other, setting up Saturday’s 1:15 p.m. title game.

In earlier games, Wiesbaden, the defending champ but seeded No. 5 this year, stayed alive with a 10-3 romp over SHAPE. Winning Wiesbaden pitcher Darrian Sealy limited SHAPE to just two hits, striking out seven. She got extra-base hitting support from Apryl Jackson, who tripled, and Sarah Carrin and Lacee Loescher, who doubled.

Also, Naples rebounded from its first loss of the season, 8-3 on Thursday to Wiesbaden, by pounding Ansbach 12-2. And Bitburg, the second seed, topped No. 3 Bamberg 9-2.

In the Division I event, Hedielberg defeated Vilseck 6-2 to move into a Friday evening semifinal game against Lakenheath, and Patch rode a four-run, last inning rally to topple Kaiserslautern 7-6.

The Lady Panthers were to take on defending champion Ramstein in the other D-I semi.

The semifinal winners played for the title at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday at Ramstein High School.