Washington Evening Journal
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IWC completes Cinderella run, punches ticket to Gulf Shores with MCC tourney title
Capping a magical postseason run over the past two weekends, the Iowa Wesleyan College softball team is the 2011 Midwest Collegiate Conference Tournament champions and is headed to the NAIA National Tournament in Gulf Shores, Ala.?
The underdog Tigers defeated William Penn University 7-3 on Sunday to eliminate the Lady Statesmen and finish with a 3-0 record at the MCC Final 4 held at Ron Buel Field on the ...
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Sep. 30, 2018 10:47 pm
Capping a magical postseason run over the past two weekends, the Iowa Wesleyan College softball team is the 2011 Midwest Collegiate Conference Tournament champions and is headed to the NAIA National Tournament in Gulf Shores, Ala.?
The underdog Tigers defeated William Penn University 7-3 on Sunday to eliminate the Lady Statesmen and finish with a 3-0 record at the MCC Final 4 held at Ron Buel Field on the campus of Drake University. Wesleyan knocked off the MCC regular season champion Lady Statesmen twice in the double-elimination tournament and is now headed to the national tourney with an 18-33 overall record on the season.?
IWC completed its stunning conference tournament roll after finishing seventh in the MCC in the regular season, winning for the sixth time in seven MCC tourney games. Once 9-31 this season and the number-seven seed of nine teams entering the MCC Tournament, the Tigers have now won nine of their last 11 games, heating up at the exact right time of the season to capture the first NAIA national tourney berth in school history.?
Wesleyan also was able to get by a longtime nemesis in William Penn, a team that has traditionally given the Tigers a particularly rough time and outscored IWC 22-1 in two regular season games. The Tigers even came from behind in both tournament games against the Lady Statesmen (36-18 overall), rebounding after early blows to come back and win.?
In a postseason full of big hits, senior Leigha Strong delivered the biggest one yet in the bottom of the third inning on Sunday. With the bases loaded Strong crushed the first pitch from Penn?s Amber Daly into straightaway center and way over the fence for a grand slam to turn the game around and give the Tigers a 4-2 lead.?
IWC pitcher Ayla Serrano never let the Lady Statesmen take the lead back and pitched a masterful game. Serrano allowed six hits and three runs while striking out two, and except for a two-run home run by WPU?s Brianne Rowley in the first inning was in control against the dangerous Penn lineup.
Following Strong?s homer William Penn never got closer than one run, that coming when Ashley Nieto hit an RBI double to right-center in the fifth to make it 4-3. Serrano got terrific defense behind her throughout the tournament, as Wesleyan played error-free on Sunday and committed just one error on the weekend and only five errors over the seven tournament games.?
Still leading by just one run in the bottom of the sixth, Wesleyan added three insurance runs with a combination of clutch hits and errors from Penn. Hannah Milligan led off the sixth with a single and Ashley Mysliwiec reached on an error. Following a sacrifice bunt by Molly Ward, Milligan would then score when Jill Ginder reached on an error. Serrano then followed with a single through the right side that eventually got past the WPU right fielder and rolled all the way to the wall as Mysliwiec and Ginder both scored.?
Serrano closed the championship by making quick work of the Lady Statesmen in the seventh. She induced two ground outs and then a pop fly to Mysliwiec at shortstop for the clincher, leading to a celebration on the infield by the entire IWC team.?
Serrano, Strong and Milligan all finished with two hits for Iowa Wesleyan. Serrano recorded her tenth win of the season and second of the weekend, getting 13 outs via the ground ball.?
IWC now will await the announcement of the pairings for the NAIA National Tournament, which will be held May 19-25. The tournament begins with four-team groupings in pool play with pool winners advancing to a final eight-team double-elimination bracket.
BOX SCORE
IWC 7, WILLIAM PENN 3
R H E
William Penn ? 200 010 0 - 3 6 4
IWC ? 004 003 X - 7 9 0
AB R H BI
William Penn ? Nieto, Ashley 2b 2 0 1 1; Miller, Molly ss 3 1 1 0; Rowley, Brianne 1b 3 1 1 2; Lewis, Khyia cf 3 0 0 0; Lohman, Cassie dh 2 0 0 0; Gamble, Christine ph 1 0 1 0; Stream, Ashley 3b 3 0 0 0; Reyes, Brittni rf 3 1 1 0; Kingery, Ashley c 2 0 0 0; Rosario, Anthena c 1 0 0 0; Rensberger, Andrea lf 3 0 1 0 - Totals ? 26 3 6 3
IWC ? Ginder, Jill 2b 4 2 1 0; Serrano, Ayla p 4 1 2 1; Strong, Leigha cf 4 1 2 4; Voss, Sarah lf 3 0 0 0; Smith, Cari c 3 0 1 0; Milligan, Hannah dh 3 1 2 0; Mysliwiec, Ashley ss 3 1 0 0; Ward, Molly 3b 2 0 0 0; McCleary, Sarah 1b 2 1 1 0; Hills, Kali 1b 1 0 0 0 - Totals ? 29 7 9 5
IP H R ER BB SO WP BK HP IBB AB BF FO GO
William Penn ? Daly, Amber (L) 5.0 8 6 3 0 3 0 0 0 0 25 25 5 7; Whitehead, Jennifer 1.0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 4 5 1 1
IWC ? Serrano, Ayla (W) 7.0 6 3 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 26 27 6 13
E - Miller, M.; Reyes, B. 2; Whitehead. LOB - William Penn 3; IWC 5. 2B - Nieto, A.; Ginder. 3B - Milligan. HR - Rowley, B.; Strong. SH - Nieto, A.; Ward, M. SB - Ginder.