IWU softball wins slugfest, CCIW championship

May 03--BLOOMINGTON -- When pitchers struggle and hitters don't, you get games like Saturday's College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Tournament championship.

No. 12-ranked Illinois Wesleyan survived a seven-run, second-inning outburst by Augustana, rallying for a 10-9 victory to claim the CCIW title in front of 225 fans at IWU Field.

"I am so proud of the girls," Titans coach Kat McCreery said. "After that big inning, they didn't hang their heads or give up. They just kept fighting."

Sara Daley (three hits, four RBIs) gave IWU (37-5) a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first with a two-run homer off of Vikings starter Ashley Anderson (11-7). But No. 18 Augustana (33-11) answered quickly.

Brittany Kellet's leadoff homer in the second tied the game at two. Jennifer Gray then reached on a bunt single before Laura Behnke homered off Titans ace Molly McCready. The senior then walked the bases loaded before Chelsea Lavin doubled in two runs for 5-2 Vikings cushion.

Augustana later added two more on an error.

The Titans got three back in the bottom of the inning, highlighted by Daley's two-run single, but the breakthrough came in the fifth.

"We know this team can hit, and we know that we can score a lot of runs, so we weren't worried about the big deficit," Titans right fielder Hannah Bowen said. "We knew we didn't have to get it all back in one inning."

Bowen started the rally with a single, advanced on Daley's hit and later scored on a Chloe Montgomery hit. A fielding error added another Titan run before Amanda Fazzari tied the game at 8 with an RBI hit.

"Obviously there's pressure in that situation, but like Hannah (Bowen) said, we knew we could come back," Fazzari said. "I just knew it was my job to get something to fall and bring the runner at third home."

IWU went ahead on a bases-loaded walk before Bowen added an insurance run with her third hit of the day.

While the Titan offense played a big role in the rally, IWU relief pitcher Jenna Noland was brilliant in making it stand. After the Vikings pulled within one, Noland replaced Montgomery (6-0), who earned the win in relief. Noland went 1 2/3 innings, allowing a hit with no walks and four strikeouts.

"I just knew that it was my job to come in and sit (Augustana) down," Noland said. "There was no pressure at all, I just needed to do my job."

The IWU victory was its fourth over the Vikings this season and 18th straight overall. The Titans earned an automatic bid in the NCAA Division III regional. IWU's site will be announced Monday morning on NCAA.com.

"The first step is out of the way, and it's a great accomplishment ... but we know there's more ahead of us," McCreery added.

"We talked at the beginning of the season about the goal of getting to Texas (site of the Division III World Series), and that's obviously still in our sights. But we need to keep pushing through right now and play hard to get there."

Augustana 4, Carthage 0: Augustana advanced to the title game with a victory over Carthage. LeRoy native Sarah Hintz (17-4) pitched a six-hit shutout, striking out seven and walking three.

Hintz and Normal West graduate Christina Pagan had one hit each.

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