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Issued: May 1, 2008

SOFTBALL LOOKS TO THREEPEAT AT WIAC TOURNEY

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – The 25th-ranked UW-Eau Claire women’s softball team hopes to win its third consecutive conference tournament this weekend and clinch another spot in the national tourney.

The games start up at 9 a.m. at UW-Steven Point’s Zenoff Park on Saturday though Eau Claire’s game isn’t until 11 a.m. The contests were originally scheduled to start on Friday, but the tournament is pushed back a day by the weather.

The 10-4 Blugolds are the third-seed squad and will face sixth-seeded UW-La Crosse. The Eagles went 8-8 in Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) play and 22-17 overall to clinch the seed.

Eau Claire went 1-1 against La Crosse this year with a 4-3 loss in eight innings and a 2-0 blanking. The first game saw Eau Claire jump to three runs in the opening frame before Eagles’ starter Jess Iwanski held Eau Claire to three hits the rest of the way. Jenny Ross (Fr.-Mendota Height, Minn./Henry Sibley) returned the dominant pitching favor in Game Two with a complete game four-hitter.

Ross has been the ace on the staff this year, going 16-1 and picking up her only loss in her last start against 17th-ranked UW-Whitewater. The 16 wins are the WIAC’s most. She has a 1.27 ERA with 98 strikeouts compared to 13 walks. Her 98 strikeouts and are tied for sixth most in a Blugold season and her ERA is sixth by itself. The ERA is second best in the conference.

Leafoff hitter Casey Leisgang (Sr.-Seymour, Wis.) has sparked the team with her average and power. She leads the squad in batting (.473), on-base percentage (.559), runs scored (47), slugging (.804), total bases (90) and homers (7). She is first in the conference for runs and on-base percentage and second for average and walks (22). She is the all-time Blugold leader in homers with 34. Jill Janke (Sr.-Black River Falls, Wis.) has knocked the runners in with a team-leading 33 RBIs.

As a team, Eau Claire outhits opponents by nearly 100 points with a .342-to-.249 margin. The average is second in the conference. They outslug opponents .507-to-.383 and reach base on a .405 clip compared to opposing squads’ .299. The pitching also outdoes its competition 3.11-to-5.63 in the ERA department.

The Eagles have also beat opponents in batting with a .323-to-.267 margin, which is third in the WIAC. La Crosse edges out opponents in slugging (.489-to-.378) and in on-base percentage (.382-to-.336). They have 36 homers over 20 from opposing batters. Eau Claire’s margin is 30-to-25. The staff holds a 3.27 ERA while Eagle bats beat up its counterparts for a 4.26 ERA.

The Eagles have five pitchers with 10 or more appearances while the Blugolds have three. However, La Crosse still has a main starter in Heather Schultz. She has started 15 of the 39 games and has gone 7-7 with a 3.43 ERA. She walked 44 while punching out 81. Opponents bat .251 off her.

A duo of Rachels lead the offense. Both Rachel Croak and Rachel Weyer batted at a .417 clip this year. Croak beats out Weyer in on-base percentage by a single point at .456. Weyer has her in runs (38-to-36) and hits (60-to-53), with the hits being No. 2 and No. 3 in the WIAC. Croak also likes to run, going 20-for-23 on steals, which ranks second. Liz Bradley provides the power on 11 homers, 44 RBIs and a .752 slugging percentage, all team-highs. The 44 is second to just one figure in the conference standings, as are her homers.

Eau Claire has had recent success in the WIAC Tourney. Last year Eau Claire and Oshkosh went at it three times and three times the game was decided by a run. A ninth-inning homer gave Eau Claire a 3-2 win in the championship and a stab at nationals. In 2006, Eau Claire also beat Oshkosh to advance, though this time it was in the regular seven. The Blugolds have been in the championship game the past three years and hold a WIAC-high six tourney titles.

If Eau Claire wins against La Crosse, it would face either second-seeded and 14th-ranked Oshkosh or seventh-seeded UW-Platteville in round two.

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