Box Score
Eau Claire got their Wish(au). Senior lefthander Emma Wishau scattered six hits and didn't walk a batter, while striking out three, in UW-EC's 5-1 win over Benedictine University Friday in the Whitewater Regional of the NCAA III softball championship tournament.
Eau Claire scored all the runs it needed in the top of the first on a Taylor Pierce three run homerun. But that was it, with half of all the offense in the game in that half inning as the pitchers wrested control from the batters. The Blugolds add a fourth tally in the second on Emily Ruegemer's bunt single. The first three Benedictine batters in the fifth reached safely, with junior first baseman Nikki Powers collecting the RBI with a single to right center to make the score 4-1 UW-EC. Eau Claire scored its final run in the top of the seventh with the aid of a Benedictine error.
Wishau upped her record to 9-3. Pierce, 2x4, was the lone Blugold with more than one hit. Freshman righthander Melissa Guzior went two innings for Benedictine, giving up four runs, before Ashley Parrott finished with five innings of one run ball. Freshman DH Melissa Stoch, 2x3, had a third on the Eagles' six hits.
UW-Eau Claire, 27-8, will play the loser of a Thursday matchup between UW-Whitewater and Luther College at 10:00 Saturday. Benedictine is out of the tournament, closing 2013 with a 26-14 record.
