Robert Morris Softball

Robert Morris Sees Historic Season Come to End With Loss to Auburn in NCAA Softball Regionals

Published

4 weeks ago

May 17, 2025

Adam Borst

Robert Morris softball celebrates a home run against Auburn in the NCAA Tournament regionals -- RMU Athletics

After winning 30 games and the program’s first ever Horizon League championship, the Robert Morris softball team earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 20 seasons.

Unfortunately for the Colonials, after losing to No. 5-ranked Florida State in Friday’s regional opener, they faced a must-win situation as they headed into Saturday’s elimination game against Auburn.

After battling with the Tigers over the first three innings, and even outhitting the Tigers over that span, the Colonials ran out of gas and lost the elimination game by the score of 11-3.

Live in the moment 😁 pic.twitter.com/DUqKG2goMH

— RMU Softball (@RMUSoftball) May 17, 2025

The game started with standout outfielder Courtney Poulich making a web-gem catch as she dove out of the field of play to steal an out for Robert Morris.

What a snag 😮‍💨#RoadToWCWS x 🎥 ESPN+ / @RMUSoftball pic.twitter.com/wM9GJCPjel

— NCAA Softball (@NCAASoftball) May 17, 2025

Following the SportsCenter Top-10 catch, Colonials’ ace Madison DeVault fell into a bit of trouble as she allowed each of the first six batters to work their way into a two-ball count but she managed to escape the inning without giving up any runs.

The Colonials jumped out in front of the Tigers in the bottom half of the first inning after Kaylyn Hopf singled to start the game and eventually scored on a near homer by Mary Brant which bounced off of the left center wall for an RBI-double.

The early struggles that DeVault faced showed up again in what ended up as a decisive second inning. After she hit a batter and walked the next, Annalea Adams singled home the Tigers first run of the game.

Following Adams’ RBI-single, KK McCrary hit a long fly ball to Poulich but just as she caught it, she bounced off of the wall and the ball came loose which allowed McCrary to end up on third base with a two-run triple. Anna Wohlers followed that up with her own RBI-triple, which she ended up scoring on as the relay throw ended up nearly in the Auburn dugout.

The second-inning outburst allowed the Tigers to jump out to a 5-1 lead over the Colonials.

The Colonials showed good fight over the next few innings as they begun chipping away at the Tigers’ lead. In the bottom half of the second inning, Jess Matheny continued her strong regional showing as she hit a leadoff home run to cut the deficit to three.

After DeVault managed to blank the Tigers in the top of the third inning, the Colonials got another run back after Poulich hit her 16th homer of the season and first of the NCAA Tournament. Robert Morris looked to crawl back to just a one-run deficit later in the inning but that chance was ended when Alaina Koutsogiani was thrown out at home to end the inning.

HR #16 of the year for @cpoulich8 is a beauty🔥 pic.twitter.com/DXA1zpfxka

— RMU Softball (@RMUSoftball) May 17, 2025

The score stayed at 5-3 until the Tigers came to bat in the top of the fifth where they jumped on a tiring DeVault and pushed their lead past the run-rule limit.

After DeVault struck out the first batter of the inning, Amelia Lech hit her third home run of the weekend to give the Tigers a three-run advantage once again. After getting a second out on a pop out to third base, the Tigers rallied off five more runs which included a two-run home run from Adams.

The Colonials failed to score in the bottom half of the inning which ended the game after just five innings.

Despite not winning a game in the regionals, the Colonials enjoyed one of the best seasons in program history as they won 30 games for the second time ever, led the league in many team and individual stats, set multiple program records and even had a Co-Freshman of the Year player.

While the season comes to a screeching halt, winning games against power-conference opponents is never easy for mid-major programs but with the foundation that head coach Jexx Varner and his players laid this season, there should be a lot more winning and a lot more record breaking in the near future for Bobby Mo.