Related Links:
NCAA Bloomington Super Regional Web Page
NCAA Division III Softball Web Page
The No. 25 ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater softball team seeks its first trip to the NCAA Championship round since 2014 this weekend as it heads to Bloomington, Ill., to take on 24th-ranked Illinois Wesleyan in the NCAA Super Regional round.
The Warhawks and Titans, ranked as the top two teams in the Great Lakes Region prior to the start of the NCAA Tournament, will play a best-of-three series starting Friday at 2 p.m. and continuing Saturday at 1 p.m.
If the series is tied 1-1 after two games, a decisive third game will be played Saturday at 3:30 p.m. with a trip to the national quarterfinals in Oklahoma City on the line.
UW-Whitewater (28-11-1 overall) punched its ticket to the Super Regional by winning the NCAA Whitewater Regional, downing Benedictine (Ill.) by a 6-5 score Saturday before defeating Coe (Iowa) in back-to-back one-run games on Sunday and Monday at van Steenderen Softball Complex in Whitewater.
Junior pitcher
Julia Camardo (Arlington Heights, Ill./Buffalo Grove), named the regional's Most Outstanding Player, tossed a complete game in the championship Monday to help the Warhawks to a 3-2 victory over Coe. Junior centerfielder
Caitlin Catino (Arlington Heights, Ill./Buffalo Grove), who joined Camardo on the All-Tournament Team, knocked in all three runs with a pair of doubles and robbed the Kohawks of a game-tying home run in the seventh inning with
a catch that ended up as the No. 4 play on ESPN SportsCenter's Top 10 later that night.
Senior left fielder
Mallory Klotz (New Berlin, Wis./West) and junior first baseman
Molly Ethington (Rock Island, Ill./Alleman Catholic) also earned spots on the All-Tournament Team. Klotz finished 6-for-9 (.667) at the plate with one walk, two stolen bases, one run scored and the go-ahead run batted in during the sixth inning of UW-Whitewater's 6-5 triumph over Benedictine (Ill.) on Saturday. Ethington was 4-for-8 (.500) at the plate with one walk and two RBI during the tournament.
The Warhawks enter the Super Regional with nine straight wins, including five straight by one run during the postseason. The team last advanced to the Super Regional round in 2014, when it knocked off Illinois Wesleyan and went on to finish third at the NCAA Championship.
Illinois Wesleyan (34-10-1), making its third straight appearance in the Super Regional round, won the NCAA Bloomington Regional last weekend with a victory over Thomas More (Ky.) followed by consecutive wins over Transylvania (Ky.).
The Titans are led offensively by Sam Berghoff, who is batting .478 with 19 doubles, four triples, 10 home runs and 58 RBI, all team highs. Jillian Runyon is batting .359 with a team-best 53 runs to go along with 44 stolen bases.
Three pitchers have made 14 or more starts this season for Illinois Wesleyan. Ally Wiegand leads the staff with a 16-3 record and a 0.96 earned run average and 184 strikeouts in 116 1/3 innings. Brea Walker (10-4, 1.73 ERA) and Mackenzie Marquis (7-3, 3.55 ERA) round out the rotation.
The Warhawks and Titans already played this season in Bloomington during a doubleheader on April 23. Illinois Wesleyan won the opener 3-0 before the second game was called tied 2-2 after eight innings due to darkness.
