UW-Whitewater secured a spot in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Softball Tournament with a doubleheader sweep, 4-0 and 3-0, of UW-River Falls Sunday at van Steenderen Field in Whitewater.  The Warhawks have shut out four consecutive opponents, and five of the last six.  The wins Sunday also gave UW-W a 16-0 mark at home this season.


Game One:  UW-Whitewater 4, UW-River Falls 0
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Jessica Stang (Minnetonka, MN/Minnetonka) backed up her shutout win over UW-Stout Saturday with her sixth shutout of the season.  She gave up seven hits, walked three and struck out six to up her record to 13-6.

Laruen Rankins' RBI double in the second gave Stang the only run she would need.  UW-W added two more runs, both unearned, in the third, and Emily Epifanio (Park Ridge, IL/Maine South) singled in the final run in the fifth.

Rankins and DH Courtney Baldwin (Spring Grove, IL/Richmond-Burton) had two hits each for the Warhawks. 

Jamie Klein, 7-4, went the first three innings for UW-RF.  Catcher Patty Olson had two of the Falcons' seven hits.

Game Two: UW-Whitewater 3, UW-River Falls 3
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More of the same, only this time it was Katie Boyle (Greendale/Thomas More) on the mound for UW-W.  She went the first five and two thirds, yielding five hits and a walk with two strikeouts to even her mark at 6-6.  Stang came on in the sixth with two runners on and closed out the game for her third save of the season.  Boyle and Stang combined to limit UW-RF to just three innings with a runner in scoring position, and none of those runners reached third. 

As they did in game one, the Warhawks gave their pitcher some support with two runs in the second.  Singles by Lauren Cruz (Des Plaines, IL/Maine West), Kate McDonnell (Aurora, IL/West Aurora), and Jordyn Gaza (Mundelein, IL/Carmel Catholic), sandwiched around advancement on a ground out, accounted for the only two runs Warhawk pitching needed.

Whitewater added a single run in the third with the aid of a Falcon error to close out the scoring.

McDonnell, who came in to the day with a .398 average, hit the .400 mark with a 3x3 performance in the second game. 

Klein, 7-5m was, again, the starter and loser in game two.  Olson led the Falcon offense again, going 2x3.

Misc
UW-Whitewater is 27-13 overall and finishes the regular season with a 10-6 record in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.  UW-RF is 22-14 overall and 9-7 in league play. 

UW-Whitewater has earned a spot in the WIAC Tournament, which begins Friday and concludes Saturday with UW-Oshkosh as the host.  Whitewater's first round opponent and game time have not been determined. 

A reminder:  UW-Whitewater will host a NCAA Division III regional May 13-17 at van Steenderen Field on the north end of the UW-W campus.

For additional information:  Brenda Volk, UW-W head coach