Day One Review
Issued: May 4, 2007
TOP SEEDS LOSE IN WIAC SOFTBALL TOURNEY
The top two seeds in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference fastpitch softball tournament both lost their semifinal games in nine innings and will need to make a recovery through the losers’ bracket in order to win the double elimination tournament which will wrap up Saturday at Carson Park in Eau Claire.
Top-seeded UW-Oshkosh dropped a 4-3 decision to defending champion UW-Eau Claire, which came in as the fourth seed, in a nine-inning battle while third-seeded UW-River Falls had to score twice in the seventh to extend the game, then broke it open with six in the ninth to defeat second-seeded UW-Stevens Point, 11-7.
Three of the nine games played Friday went nine innings and River Falls won two of them. Two games ended early on the eight-run rule. The bottom three seeds (UW-Platteville, UW-Stout and UW-La Crosse) all exited the tournament. A total of 19 home runs left the two diamonds including seven by Stevens Point.
Either Oshkosh or Stevens Point would need to win five straight games to win the tournament title and the WIAC’s automatic bid into the NCAA Division III championship field. Oshkosh is ranked No. 11 in this week’s NFCA Division III poll and will take a 30-8 record into its 9 a.m. game Saturday against sixth-seeded UW-Superior. Stevens Point is ranked No. 17 in the most recent NFCA poll and will take a 31-7 mark into its game against fifth-seeded UW-Whitewater, also at 9 a.m. The winners of those two games will face off at 11 a.m., the same time at which River Falls and Eau Claire will square off for a chance to move into the first championship game. River Falls is now 32-10 for the season while Eau Claire improved to 29-11.
In its nine-inning win over Point, River Falls pounded out a tournament-high 19 hits, all of them singles except for one double by Mindy Rudiger. Rudiger and Emily Howlett each had four hits in that game, a feat matched on the day only by Superior’s Jamie Lovstad who had four in her team’s nine-inning loss to River Falls. In their ninth inning against Point, River Falls strung together seven hits to score its six runs.
River Falls scored on a bases-loaded infield hit in the ninth to defeat Superior, 4-3, in its first game of the day. Superior rallied twice to tie the score, including once in the top of the seventh. Superior may have scored two of the most unusual runs of the day. One came on a bases-loaded illegal pitch. Another came after a runner reached first on an error after striking out.
Stevens Point used a school-record four home runs to power past UW-La Crosse, 9-1, in its first game. With the three the Pointers got in their second outing, they extended their school single season HR mark to 25.
Among the top pitching efforts of the day was a two-hitter by Superior’s Jen Reid in a 10-1 win over La Crosse. One of the two hits was a solo home run by the Eagles’ Mary Santarelli. Reid did not issue a walk and struck out eight.
Eau Claire’s Mallory McKinney allowed only two hits and no runs in 6 1/3 innings of the Blugolds’ first game, a 9-2 decision over Whitewater.
In eight of the nine games played Friday, the winning team had 10 or more hits and four of the nine games saw a combined 20 or more hits.
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