Official Championship Page
XENIA, Ohio – After being idle for the past two days because of inclement weather, five games of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Softball Championship continued on Saturday with the remaining teams.
When the dust settled, No. 2 Kentucky Wesleyan found out it will face No. 4 Davis & Elkins for conference trophy glory.
Sunday’s championship final will begin at 11:00 am and the if-necessary game would follow should D&E win the opening contest. Live video and audio commentary with live stats will be streamed tomorrow.
And why not D&E? As the fourth seed in the tourney, the Senators were probably overlooked by most observers and maybe even written off completely after falling in Wednesday’s opening game 5-0.
But D&E pitched back-to-back shutouts on field two with their backs against the wall at the Athletes in Action Complex to pull the unthinkable while eliminating No. 1 seed Cedarville and No. 6 seed Malone in the process.
Junior pitcher Allie Lapallo is simply untouchable at the moment and will look to run that hot streak into tomorrow. She answered the call in the circle in elimination games nonetheless and combined for 14 scoreless innings with seven strikeouts.
Lapallo’s gem against Cedarville went seven shutout lnnings with five strikeouts.
First-team all-conference outfielder Danielle Norton came through in the clutch with the game’s lone RBI in a 1-0 final over a Malone squad that was waiting the winner of the first set of 9 a.m. games this morning.
The Senators are thriving under the passionate leadership of first-year head coach Jordan Olson and have to dig just a little deeper to be able to take down Kentucky Wesleyan.
The Panthers (37-20) stymied four-time league champion Trevecca Nazarene in two game on Saturday, winning 9-6 and 12-2 (6 innings). In a sign of great support, both D&E and KWC stuck around to honor seniors Alex Richardson and Kaitlin Crumpler, in a simulated graduation ceremony behind home plate.
Crumpler had a banner day at the plate with four doubles while teammate Caitlyn Hudgins also homoered.
The KWC bats continued to spray the ball to all parts of the field and outfielder Jaclyn Parker flashed the leather in the shortened, six-inning game with a lunging snare in the left field corner.
Sophomore Meredith Daunhauer, known for her game-changing speed, pulled two balls over the infielders playing in too shallow for RBI’s. Lexie Mullen is still mashing the ball with home runs in each game. Her RBI totals are impressive for the postseason and