ncaa softball game suspended after 5

The Muhlenberg softball team waited six years to get back to the

Blohm (center, in helmet) is the seventh different Mule to hit a home run this season.

NCAA Tournament, and it will have to wait a little longer to resolve its first game.

The Mules’ first-round game against William Paterson was halted after five innings due to darkness with the Pioneers leading 5-2. Rain pushed back the whole schedule for the tournament at Ramapo, with the 10:00 game not starting until 12:20. The Muhlenberg-William Paterson game, scheduled for a 4:00 start, began at 6:30 and was suspended at about 7:40 with daylight running low.

The teams will resume the game on Friday at 10:00 with the Mules batting in the top of the sixth.

Paterson, ranked 16th in Division III, needed only two batters to plate the first run, on a hit by pitch and a double. The Mules responded in the top of the second, taking a 2-1 lead when freshman Brittany Blohm hammered a pitch over the fence in left for her first career home run in her first career NCAA at-bat.

The Pioneers loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the second. Muhlenberg had a chance to get out of the inning, but a misplay on an attempted double play led to four unearned runs scoring.

Both pitchers settled down after the first two innings, with Mule sophomore Alyssa Bruckner allowing two harmless singles over the next three frames and Pioneer hurler Michele Graham retiring 11 straight after the home run.

Whichever team goes on to win the resumed game will play Rowan on Friday at 4:00. The loser faces Farmingdale State in an elimination game at noon.