On Thursday, the Great Midwest Athletic Conference will host its first-ever Softball Championships.  The tournament, hosted by top seed Trevecca Nazarene University, will be held in Nashville, Tennessee starting at 10:00 a.m. with a first round game between #2 Urbana University and #3 Cedarville University. TNU will take on #4 Ursuline College in game two at noon.

Softball Championship Schedule

Game 1: Thursday, May 2, 2013 - 10:00 AM
#3 Cedarville University (color uniforms) vs. #2 Urbana University (white uniforms)

Game 2: Thursday, May 2, 2013 – 12:00 PM
#4 Ursuline University (color uniforms) vs. #1 Trevecca Nazarene (white uniforms)

Game 3: Thursday, March 2, 2013 - 2:00 PM
Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2

Game 4: Thursday, March 2, 2013 – 4:00 PM
Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2

Game 5: Friday, May 3, 2013 – 11:00 AM
Winner Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4

Game 6: Friday, May 3, 2013 – 1:00 PM
Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5

Game 7 (if necessary): Friday, May 3, 2013 – 3:00 PM
Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 6

Championship Preview

Trevecca Nazarene navigated through G-MAC play without a blemish.  With the 12-0 record the Trojans compiled, they have the honor of hosting these Championships.  Trevecca hones a balanced attack between offense and defense, which has led them to an eight-game winning streak heading into the conference tournament. 

Urbana is the #2 seed, and have compiled a 5-5 conference record, missing a pair of games against Ursuline due to weather throughout the season. Their team is built around pitching, as they lead the G-MAC in earned run average (3.04), shutouts (7), strikeouts (225), and saves (3).

Cedarville is the tournament’s #3 seed at 5-7 in conference place. The Lady Jackets are continuing to improve as of late, holding a 6-3 record in their last nine contests. Their offense and aggressive base running has carried them to this point, leading in the conference with 344 hits and 98 stolen bases. That is more than double the next highest total, which is Trevecca who stole 46 bases on the season. Even more impressive is that Cedarville has only been caught nine times trying to advance, which is the best stolen base percentage by far in the G-MAC (91.5% success).

Ursuline, who is still looking for its first win in conference play (0-10), will be the #4 seed and look for that win against the undefeated Trojans in the first round. The Arrows began the year 4-1 and finished the early part of their season with a 6-4 record. Starting with a conference doubleheader with Urbana, UC began a ten-game losing streak and have lost 17 of their last 20 games to wrap up the season. All three wins came against Division III opponents.

Players to Watch

Hitting:
Trevecca’s Breanna Zeis, who has been named G-MAC Softball Offensive Athlete of the Week five times in nine total weeks, leads the conference in in batting average (.529), hits (54), doubles (16), home runs (10), extra base hits (27), RBIs (44), slugging percentage (1.000), and on-base percentage (.581). Many of the categories she leads by a significant margin as well. If she continues to hit like she has during the regular-season, she could easily carry TNU to the title by herself.   

Urbana’s Ashley Skinner posted a regular-season batting average of .409 to lead the Blue Knights. She totaled the second most home runs in conference with seven, along with ranking second behind Zeis with 19 extra base hits, a .807 slugging percentage and 71 total bases. She also ranked in the top five in conference with .475 on-base percentage, 25 RBI, 10 doubles, two triples,

Cedarville’s Kelsey Wilson, who has the second best average in the conference at .429, also ranks among the top hitters in the G-MAC with a pair of home runs, 23 RBIs, 47 hits and 28 stolen bases. Her teammate Rachel Bull leads the way with 40 stolen bases, and also leads the conference with 22 walks. She holds a .388 batting average, but a more impressive on-base percentage of .474.

Pitching:
Haley J. Kolmerten of Urbana began the year as good as anyone could have. She began the season with a 9-0 record, including a pair of conference wins over Ursuline and Cedarville. She posted a 1.11 earned run average over the nine starts (10 total appearances), going the distance in eight of the games including two shutout performances and one combined shutout. Over her first 57 innings, she struck out 91 batters. She finished the season, 11-8 with a 3.11 ERA and a conference-high 144 strikeouts in 107 innings.

Natalie Papini of Trevecca Nazarene has had a very strong second half of the season, finishing the conference schedule with a perfect 4-0 record and a conference-low 0.82 ERA, allowing two earned runs in 22 innings, while striking out 20. Overall, she was 7-2 with 2 complete games and a conference-low 2.39 ERA.

Courtnie Span of Cedarville owned an 8-8 record overall, but posted a 3.48 ERA (third best in conference) and struck out 118 hitters, which ranked second behind Kolmerten. Teammate Cecelia DeBartolo was 3-1 in conference with a 1.48 ERA, allowing four earned runs in 24.1 innings. She struck out 15 and walked just two.

Ursuline is led by the duo of Ciara Seymour and Sarah Maxwell. Despite the combined 8-20 record, they combined to strikeout 115 hitters and walk only 48.

Softball Championship Match-ups

In the first game of this tournament, #3 Cedarville will face #2 Urbana. Urbana had the upper hand in the regular season as the Blue Knights took 3 of 4 from Cedarville including sweeping a doubleheader series at Cedarville in early April.

In the four games, Rachel Bull (Cedarville) hit .471 with three runs and three RBI, while Urbana was led by Ashley Skinner and Brooke Shultz’s seven hits each. Skinner scored three and drove in three, while Shultz scored six and drove in two. Kelsey Chapman and Katie Woodard of Cedarville hit the only two home runs over the four games.

In the second game of the tournament, top seed Trevecca will face #4 Ursuline. Trevecca swept Ursuline in the regular season in route to their perfect conference record.  Early in the season, the Trojans had a little trouble sweeping Ursuline, but found a way to get it done by taking game 19-1 in 6 innings and 6-5 in game two in 8 innings. Trevecca wrapped up the regular-season title early with a pair of 9-0 wins over Ursuline, moving them at the time to 10-0, which clinched the conference crown for TNU.

In the four games, Breanna Zeis hit .538 with a double and four home runs, while teammate Lacey Grimes hit .500 with two doubles and three home runs. The duo combined to collected 13 hits, of which 10 were for extra bases. They had 11 runs scored and 17 RBI, plus four walks. Ursuline was led by Rachel Wells, who hit .364 with a solo-home run.