What many will regard as the most successful softball season in UW-Whitewater history ended Monday in Salem, Virginia. UW-Eau Claire defeated UW-Whitewater 4-3 in nine innings Monday in the championship game of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III softball tournament at Moyer Sports Complex in Salem. UW-Whitewater post-season site
Box Score
Photo gallery
Award ceremony photo gallery
Post-game press conference
Video of UW-W receiving their NCAA second place awards
Whitewater's Amanda LeBeau (Worth, IL/Richards) opened the second with a single, was sacrificed to second, and came home on a Lauren Rankins (Marengo, IL/Marengo) single to put the Warhawks up 1-0.
Eau Claire got the run back with a Katie Stalker lead-off single. She was sacrificed to second, and when the next batter hit a grounder that UW-W bobbled momentarily, recovered in time to get the out at first, but Stalker kept running and scored on the play to knot the game 1-1.
Ashley Smith (Elgin, IL/St. Edward Catholic) singled with two outs in Whitewater's fifth, bringing up Suzanne Gersich (Wadsworth, IL/Warren), who hit the first pitch for a home run to put UW-W in the lead, 3-1. Gersich's home run was her eleventh of the season, and number 67 for the Warhawks this season. Gersich is tied for second in the UW-W record list for home runs in a season. The team total is a UW-Whitewater record, a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference record, and second all-time in Division III of the NCAA.
Eau Claire was down to its last out, but Stalker singled to keep things alive. Casey Leisgang advanced Stalker to third with a single, and Tamara Zeman brought one run in to make it 3-2 Whitewater. A walk and a UW-W error helped the Blugolds score the tying run in the bottom of the seventh.
Eau Claire threatened in the eighth, but Whitewater threw out the potential winning run at the plate.
Whitewater went out three up-three down in the ninth. In the bottom of the ninth, UW-W's Jessica Stang (Minnetonka, MN/Minnetonka) retired the first two batters, but with the count 1-1 Jill Janke ended the game with her sixth home run of the season.
UW-W's #Jessica# Stang, 16-6, who pitched every inning but one in the series, ended her ironwoman run with another notable performance. In the tournament Stang pitched 42.1 innings, allowed just five earned runs in the six games, and struck out 40. Along the way she shattered UW-W's single season strikeout record.
Lauren Cruz (Des Plaines, IL/Maine West), Amy Gahl (Beloit/Parkview), Suzanne Gersich (Wadsworth, IL/Warren), Jessica Stang (Minnetonka, MN/Minnetonka), and Amanda LeBeau (Worth, IL/Richards) were named to the NCAA III World Series all-tournament team.
The all-WIAC final is the third time in the history of the conference that member schools met for a NCAA III championship. The other two, in 1993 and 1994, came in men's hockey.
UW-Whitewater finishes the season 39-11, the second highest victory total in school history. The finish equals the school's best finish in the NCAA III tournament, also accomplished in 1986.
