ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The baseball cliché says a pitcher should let the defense do the work. Skidmore College's Amanda Carilli did that on Friday and because of it, the Thoroughbreds will play for the Liberty League softball championship.
 
Carilli was strong for the second straight day as Skidmore defeated the University of Rochester, 5-0, in the winners' bracket of the Liberty League tournament. She allowed three hits, did not issue a walk or strike out a batter. She did get 15 ground ball outs from her defense.
 
Rochester will play in a 3 pm elimination game against either RIT or RPI. Those two teams meet at 12:30 pm. Each one lost on Thursday – RIT, 1-0 to Rochester and RPI, 4-1 to Skidmore. The loser of the 12:30 game is eliminated. The winner will play Rochester at 3 on Friday to see who advances to Saturday's championship game at noon. If each team has one loss after the noon game, the same two teams will play to determine the league champion. The Liberty champion receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III playoffs.
 
Three of Skidmore's runs were unearned. The Thoroughbreds took a 1-0 lead in the third. Jill Strileckis walked with one out. After a strikeout, Dani DeGregory sliced a ball down the left field line that was dropped. Strileckis raced home with the first run.
 
They scored four more in the sixth – all with two outs. May-Lin McEvoy and Kristina Foley singled. Cassie Fishkin doubled to center scoring both. A wild pitch moved Fishkin to third and she scored when Lila Rosenfeld's grounder got through the infield. Strileckis singled her to third and the Thoroughbreds executed a double steal for the fifth run.
 
Rochester never posed a serious threat. The Yellowjackets had four hits – two by Kayla Kibling. Skidmore pulled off two excellent defensive plays. In the second, Emily Mangan made a shoetop catch of a sinking line drive by Rachel Pletz. In the third, Haberly Kahn was denied a hit when DeGregory dove to snare a line drive in the hole between first and second.
 
Eleni Wechsler took the loss for Rochester. She gave up six hits, walked three,, and struck out seven. Wechsler is 13-15. Carilli improved to 15-14.