Montclair, NJ – Junior righthander LeAnne Miller (Vineland, NJ / Vineland) tossed a three-hitter with 11 strikeouts while Katie Trotter (Williamstown, NJ / Williamstown) drove in all three runs as third-seeded and 16th-ranked Rowan University claimed its seventh New Jersey Athletic Conference softball championship with a 3-1 victory over top-seeded and No. 12 Montclair State at the MSU Softball Stadium on Sunday.

The Profs (36-7) claimed their seventh conference title and first since 2002 as they also earned the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Softball Championship. Selections for the NCAA Tournament will be announced on Monday, May 7 at 10:00 am on NCAA.com.

Sophomore Alex Hill (Parsippany, NJ, Parsippany Hills)drove in the lone run for Montclair State (38-7), which will now await Monday's selections. The Red Hawks were ranked No. 1 in the East Region prior to the conference tournament with Rowan ranked third.

For the second straight day, the Profs would get the better of the Red Hawks despite falling behind 1-0 in the top of the first inning.
Montclair's Shannon Mozek (Wayne, NJ, Wayne Valley) led off with a double and went to third on a sacrifice by Jamie Paulino (Linden, NJ, Linden). Dana Amato (Hillsdale, NJ, Pascack Valley) drew a walk before Hill lofted a sacrifice fly scoring Mozek for the early 1-0 lead.

But the Profs answered back in the third with three runs. Nicolina Veneziano singled with one out and after a strikeout, Stephanie Labas (Millville, NJ / Millville), who belted a two-run homer in Rowan's 3-0 win on Saturday, walked. Ashley Minch (Pennsville, NJ / Pennsville) was hit a by a pitch to load the bases and Trotter brought them all home with ball to right center that just eluded the reach of rightfielder STEPHANIE SZELIGA (South Plainfield, NJ / South Plainfield) for a double as Rowan went up 3-1.

Miller (20-1) would settle down retiring 13 of the next 14 batters after the run before running into a jam in the sixth as Mozek and Paulino led off the frame with back-to-back singles. But the righthander dug in and retired the next three hitters to end the threat.  

Hill took the loss falling to 26-4 with three of those losses coming against Rowan. Hill gave up three hits, struck out three and walked two. Miller issued three walks.

Veneziano was 2-for-2 for the Profs with Mozek getting two hits for Montclair State.