Down 2-0 going into the top of the seventh, UW-W looked to remain in the winner's bracket of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference softball tournament on Saturday in Oshkosh but came up short as they could only plate one in the inning and fell to UW-Eau Claire 2-1.  The 'Hawks beat UW-Superior earlier in the day 6-4 and are now 28-14 overall.

Box score
Conference Tournament website
Photo gallery (Gallery contains pictures from day one of the WIAC tournament.)

Lauren Rankins (Marengo, IL/Marengo) led off the seventh with a double to center.  Amanda Muche came in to pinch run for Rankins and advanced to third on a wild pitch.  She later scored on a Jordyn Gaza (Mundelein, IL/Carmel Catholic) fly out where she was not going to tag-up, but scored when the catcher couldn't handle an errant throw from right.  The subsequent batters could not reach to continue the rally as the Warhawks fell short.

Jessica Stang (Minnetonka, MN/Minnetonka) pitched all seven innings for UW-W and scattered seven hits and two earned runs while striking out eight.  Stang is 14-7 this season.

Each team tallied seven hits in the game and Amanda Mertes (Des Plaines, IL/Elk Grove) was the only Warhawk to register multiple hits.

The Blugolds have defeated the Warhawks all three times they have faced each other this season and the loss snaps an eight-game winning streak for UW-W.

UW-W will play to stay alive in the double-elimination format tournament on Sunday at 9:00 am against UW-Oshkosh at Oshkosh North High School.  The winner of the tournament gets an automatic berth in the 60-team NCAA Division III tournament beginning on May 13.

For additional information, Brenda Volk