DOYLESTOWN, Pa. – King's (Pa.) College freshman Kristina Kocher tossed a three-hit shutout to lead the third-seeded Lady Monarchs past the top-seeded Manhattanville College softball team, 2-0, in game three of the 2017 MAC Freedom Softball Championships, hosted by Delaware Valley University on Saturday afternoon.
 
With the win, King's (19-17) advances to the championship round of the MAC Freedom Tournament, and will need to win one game out of a possible two tomorrow in order to secure the MAC Freedom Championship. Manhattanville (27-13) falls into the loser's bracket and will face the winner of today's first elimination game between second-seeded Wilkes University and fourth-seeded Misericordia University in another elimination contest tomorrow at 11 a.m.
 
Kocher was tremendous for the Lady Monarchs in the circle, limiting the Valiants to three hits while striking out seven to improve to 7-5 on the year. Sophomore Aarin Hartenstein (Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) was the hard-luck loser, as she allowed two runs in six-plus innings while also striking out seven.
 
Hartenstein and Kocher both were excellent in the circle on the day, trading zeroes for the first six innings. Hartenstein made some big pitches to get out of jams in the middle innings, getting a strikeout with two in scoring position in the fourth and then snagging a comebacker for the second out before getting a fly out to center with a runner on third in the fifth.
 
The righthander got two more huge outs to escape trouble in the top of the sixth, inducing a soft lineout and getting a strikeout with two in scoring position to keep the game scoreless headed to the seventh.
 
But the danger finally caught up to the Valiants in the seventh, as King's scored twice to take the lead. After a leadoff single by Brittany McNair and a double off the wall by Ally DeVoir, Hartenstein was lifted in favor of junior Alycia Feeney (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster). After a strikeout, Samantha Bloom singled to score one run and a second run came home on an RBI grounder from Lexi Wolk to put King's three outs from a win.
 
Senior Alicia Marino (Mahopac, N.Y./Pleasantville) worked a leadoff walk to start the bottom of the seventh, but the Valiants could not move freshman pinch-runner Steph Muller (Port Jervis, N.Y./Port Jervis) any further as Kocher finished off her three-hit gem.