UW-Whitewater opened play in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III championship tournament with a 9-1 win Thursday, stopped by the deficit rule, over Coe College in the
regional hosted by Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois.
UW-Whitewater's post-season site.
box score
Whitewater, 31-8, advances to play the winner of Thursday's late game between Alma College (25-11) and Wartburg College (29-6) at 4:00 Friday in the double elimination regional which continues through Saturday. The regional winner will join seven other regional titlsts for the NCAA III finals May 16-20 in Salem, Virginia.
Coe's Ashley Leonard (jr, SS) opened the game with a leadoff home run, but that would prove to be the only run --- in fact, only hit --- UW-W would allow. The Warhawks came back with a run in their half of the first, added two in the third, five in the fourth, and ended the game with one in the bottom of the fifth to trigger the eight run deficit rule.
Freshman lefty
Jessica Stang (Minnetonka, MN/Minnetonka) upped her record to 9-3, and lowered her ERA to 0.795 with the win on the mound for UW-W. Stang allowed the one hit, walked one, and struck out six. She has 108 strikeouts in 88 innings this season.
The Warhawk offense was led by
Ashley Smith (Elgin, IL/St. Edward Catholic) (jr, 2B), who went 3x4, and Liz Yucius (jr, C), who was 2x2 with a home run, double and walk. Yucius' homer, a three-run shot in the fourth inning, was her second of the season.
Amy Gahl (Beloit/Parkview) (jr, CF) also had two hits, and
Lauren Rankins (Marengo, IL/Marengo) (fr, 3B) was on base three times with a single, walk and hit by a pitch.
Suzanne Gersich (Wadsworth, IL/Warren) (jr, RF) singled in Smith with the game-ending run in the fifth. Whitewater also scored four unearned runs with the aid of five Coe errors.
UW-Whitewater is making its sixteenth post-season appearance. The Warhawks placed eighth in the 1980 Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for the women's Division III championships, fourth in the 1984 NCAA III tourney, third in 1985, and second in 1987. Whitewater's last appearance was in 2003, where UW-W went 2-2.
