Lady Statesmen Alive, But in Consolation Bracket
William Penn Women's Athletics
Des Moines–The William Penn softball team played two heart-pounding games Saturday, but failed to stay in the championship bracket at the Midwest Collegiate Conference Final Four Tournament.
The fourth-seeded Lady Statesmen (36-17) opened with a 3-2 win over top-seeded Grand View (22-30), but then fell to #2 seed Iowa Wesleyan (17-33) by a score of 6-5.
William Penn will now face #3 seed Clarke (19-25) in an elimination game Sunday at 11 a.m. The winner will then face Iowa Wesleyan in the championship round at 1:30 p.m., but must be victorious twice in the double-elimination format to claim the tourney title and the MCC’s automatic qualifier berth to nationals.
In a game that featured the top two teams in the regular season race, the Lady Statesmen jumped out in front of the Vikings early as Grand View committed the first of its four errors in the contest.
Andrea Rensberger (Sr., Sioux City, Sioux City North HS) crossed home plate in the second on that initial mistake, but the higher seed bounced back with two runs in the fourth to go ahead 2-1.
William Penn had the final laugh though, with Ashley Stream (Jr., Chariton, Chariton HS) scoring the tying run in the fifth and Brianne Rowley (Jr., Hood River, Ore., Blue Mountain CC) plating the eventual winning run in the seventh. All five runs in the game were unearned with the squads combining for seven errors.
Jennifer Whitehead (Fr., Oskaloosa, Oskaloosa HS) was incredible in the circle, allowing just five hits and striking out ten (tying a season high) against three walks.
The Lady Statesmen tallied six hits with six different players collecting one each.
Iowa Wesleyan knocked off Clarke 3-0 in the day’s first game to set up the championship bracket matchup. William Penn had dominated the Tigers with wins of 12-1 and 10-0 earlier this season, and an early flurry of runs made a third blowout all but a certainty.
The Lady Statesmen put four runs across in the second and appeared in control. Cassie Lohman (So., Burbank, Calif., Providence HS) opened the frame with a single and later scored on a double by Christine Gamble (Jr., Pahrump, Nev., Pahrump Valley HS).
Ashley Nieto (Jr., Cement City, Mich., Jackson CC) also posted an RBI groundout to bring in Athena Rosario (Jr., Bremerton, Wash., Olympic CC), but Molly Miller (So., Kalona, Mid-Prairie HS) concluded the scoring with the biggest hit, a two-run single that tallied Gamble and Rensberger.
The euphoria did not last long, though, as Iowa Wesleyan put together a two-out rally in the bottom half to cut the deficit in half at 4-2.
The Tigers scored again in the fourth to make it 4-3, but the Lady Statesmen extended the edge back to two in the sixth when Nieto singled in Gamble.
Iowa Wesleyan has obviously found ways to win over the last two weekends and it did it one more time Saturday afternoon, rallying for three runs in the bottom of the sixth to secure its first advantage of the game.
William Penn produced a mighty threat in the top of the seventh, loading the bases with just one out, but the game ended anticlimactically with a groundout double play that dropped the league regular season champions into the consolation bracket.
The squad owned a massive 13-5 edge in hits, but again struggled in the field with four errors (one for IWC).
Khyia Lewis (Jr., Ottumwa, Ottumwa HS) led all players with a 3-for-4 showing, while Lohman and Gamble were both 2-for-3.
Whitehead (22-9) was still fairly effective versus the Tigers considering it was her second full game of the day. The freshman allowed six runs (four earned), striking out two and walking two.
