ITHACA, N.Y. – Casey Gavin delivered a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh as the nationally-ranked and top-seeded Ithaca College softball team outlasted fourth-seeded Alfred University, 3-2, on Friday in the 2016 Empire 8 Softball Championship at Kostrinsky Field.  The No. 16 Bombers, who moved to 30-7 with the win, advanced to the winner's bracket where they will face second-seeded St. John Fisher at 11 a.m. on Saturday after the Cardinals defeated Utica College, 7-2, earlier on Friday morning.  The game was originally scheduled for Friday, but had to be rescheduled due to weather.   Alfred defeated Utica in the afternoon's elimination game, 3-2, and moved on to face the winner of Ithaca and Fisher's matchup Saturday at 1 p.m.

ITHACA 3, ALFRED 2

After swapping zeroes through the first four innings, the Bombers finally broke the scoreless tie in the bottom of the fifth when Nikkey Skuraton lined a two-out single into centerfield, which scored Annie Cooney to give Ithaca a 1-0 lead. 

Facing a one-run loss, the Saxons responded in the top of the seventh with a pair of runs on two hits to take a 2-1 lead, but the Bombers' offense came to life in the home half of the seventh.  After Allie Colleran popped up to first base, Skuraton would make her way to first after being hit by a pitch and promptly stole second to put the tying run in scoring position.  The next hitter, Vanessa Brown, lifted an RBI-double off the top of the right field that plated Skuraton and tied the contest at two runs apiece.  After a fly out to right, Brown represented the winning run at third base with Gavin at the dish.  Alfred would throw two pitches before Gavin would smack a seeing-eye single just past Alfred's middle infield to lift the Bombers to the one-run lead, 3-2.

Laura Quicker started in the circle for the Bombers but did not factor in the decision after going 3.0 innings and allowing four hits before being relieved by Allison Macari who earned her 12th win of the season (12-3).  Macari tossed 4.0 innings and surrendered two runs on four hits.  She struck out four in the win.