ST. LOUIS, MO. – The No. 25 ranked University of St. Louis softball team saw Wayne State score six runs on seven hits in the bottom of the sixth inning to erase a 4-1 deficit and rally back for a 7-5 win over the Tritons in the NCAA Midwest Regional #1 championship game. The Tritons forced a deciding game two on the day after earning a 1-0 win earlier in the double-elimination tournament.
The heartbreaking loss ends the season for the region's top-seeded team, while the fourth-seeded Warriors advance to next weekend's Super Regional where they'll face No. 2 seed Southern Indiana in a best of three series for the right to play in the NCAA DII World Series.
UMSL closes its season with a 42-15 record and says goodbye to its graduating class that includes
Ryan Logan,
Sara Kern,
Rachel Matthies,
Erin Walker and
Alex Stupek. They leave with a four-year record of 192-40 (.828). Stupek graduates as the program's all-time leader in hits (268), runs scored (183), home runs (52), RBIs (175) and total bases (487).
Game 2
After knocking reigning NCAA DII Player of the Year Lyndsay Butler out of the circle after four innings, it was her bat and not her arm that helped the Warriors to the win.
Wayne State got a quick run in the first inning, but a two-run single by Logan in the top of the second turned the lead in UMSL's favor.
A solo home run from Kern in the fourth off Butler, which was just her third given up all year, made it 3-1 Tritons.
Logan again came through in the sixth, driving in an insurance run off reliever Megan Guitar with a double that scored Kern from first base.
But then in the bottom of the half, the Warriors, who were limited to just two hits from sophomore
Carly Kingery, erupted for six straight, tying it at 4-4. Butler then stepped to the plate with two outs and the delivered a bases clearing triple to give her team the 7-4 lead.
Guitar allowed the first two Tritons to reach – Walker on a single and redshirt freshman
Morgan Hill on a hit-by-pitch – before Butler returned to the circle. Sophomore
Serena Olson singled to advance the runners before an error on Stupek's at-bat allowed one run to come home. However, a pair of groundouts to Butler, including a game-ending double play ended the threat.
Logan finished his collegiate career 2-for-3 at the plate with three RBI, while Kern added two hits and scored three runs.
Wayne State out-hit UMSL, 9-7, with seven of those hits coming in the sixth.
Kingery took the loss, ending the year 26-8 in the circle. She also struck out five and walked two.
Wayne State is just the first team to beat UMSL twice this season and ends its season for the third time in the last four years in the postseason.
Game 1
After being no-hit by Butler in yesterday's 3-0 loss, the Tritons' bats came to life, recording six hits, including the game-winning RBI single from Walker, which sent Logan across home plate. Logan reached on a one-out error, helping the Tritons to extend the frame.
Logan, the number eight batter in the line-up, finished with two hits, while junior
Jennah Perryman, the nine-spot hitter, also tallied two hits.
Kingery tossed the complete-game four-hit shutout, striking out six and walking none. Kingery also erased Wayne State's third inning leadoff single, catching the pop up bunt before throwing out the runner at first for the double play.
