Holmes carries Tigers to extra inning win, doubleheader split with Ashford

Sonja Holmes hit a walk-off double in the bottom of the 11th inning to give the Iowa Wesleyan College softball team a 7-6 win over Ashford University in the second game of a key Midwest Collegiate Conference doubleheader Monday night.

The Tigers went extra innings twice with the Saints in the doubleheader, losing the first game, 8-6, in eight innings, but winning the all-important second game to clinch a tie in the regular-season standings with Ashford. Both teams finish the season with an 11-13 conference record, but in head-to-head competition, which is the tiebreaker, Wesleyan took two of three games from the Saints this year.

As a result, IWC (23-30 overall) is in position to clinch the fourth seed in the upcoming MCC Tournament pending results of Tuesday?s conference games. Both St. Ambrose University and Viterbo (Wis.) University are 9-13 in conference and need to sweep doubleheaders against Mt. Mercy University and William Penn University, respectively, to finish in a tie with the Tigers and Saints. Both face tough tasks to do so as William Penn is the MCC regular season champion and Mt. Mercy has clinched third place in the conference.

Iowa Wesleyan and Ashford (28-24 overall) played long into the night yesterday, until Holmes brought in the winning run, scoring Ayla Serrano from first base with a double down the right field line in the bottom of the 11th.

The run capped a night of ups and downs and a game in which the Tigers scored five times in the bottom of the fifth inning to take a 6-1 lead, but then surrendered five runs in the top of the sixth to tie the game at 6-6.

Holmes came on in the sixth inning as a relief pitcher to get the final out after a two-run homer by Kelly Dotzler ? the Saints? sixth home run of the night ? tied the game.

Holmes stayed on the mound in extra innings and continued to put zeroes on the board. On the night, she threw 5 1/3 innings, allowing just one hit and two baserunners while striking out three. She put herself in position to get the win, and was able to help her cause with a big hit.

The Tigers needed the win after a difficult loss in the first game. The Saints slugged five home runs against IWC ace Sierrah Garcia, including a pair of solo homers in the seventh to tie the game and then a two-run blast by Hailey Hall in the eighth to provide the winning runs.

Wesleyan led 3-0 in the first game after Garcia herself hit a three-run homer in the first inning, but let Ashford back into the game with the long ball, briefly falling behind before scoring three more runs in the bottom of the fifth to take the lead. Garcia finished with an unusual stat line, allowing ten hits and eight runs (seven earned) while striking out ten and walking one but also hitting four batters. Her five home runs allowed were just three short of her entire season total (eight) in over 160 innings worked entering the game.

Molly Ward finished with six hits on the night, including three hits in each game on Senior Night for the Tigers. Cari Smith added four hits, and Serrano had all four of her hits in the second game. The game was the final at home for four IWC seniors, including Garcia, Ward, Jill Ginder and Sarah McCleary.

Wesleyan now gets ready for the MCC tourney beginning with pod play Saturday. IWC will be matched in a double-elimination group of three teams, with the winners of the three pods as well as the highest seeded remaining team advancing to the MCC Final Four the following weekend in Ames.