Softball Splits | Fall in Winner-Take-All G-MAC Championship
Game 2 Box Score (L 9-1 - 6 inn.)
Game 1 Broadcast | Game 2 Broadcast - G-MAC Digital Network Coverage
Findlay, Ohio – Playing in their first conference championship game in program history, the University of Findlay softball team came up just shy of the ultimate prize in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC). Coming out of the consolation bracket in the tournament, the Oilers, seeded fifth, needed to defeat the second seeded Hillsdale College Chargers twice on Saturday, May 6 to win the title. Game 1 went to extra innings, but it was Findlay who picked up the 3-2 victory, forcing a winner-take-all tournament finale. In that game, the Chargers' bats got hot, and the Oilers went on to fall by a score of 9-1. The split gives Findlay a 33-16 record on the year while the Chargers earn the G-MAC Championship and a trip to the NCAA DII Midwest Regional with a record of 35-19.
Hillsdale jumped on the Oilers early in the opener, scoring a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning.
Findlay struck back in the top of the fourth when freshman Annika Bredel launched her second home run in as many days, a two-run blast that tied the game and was the beginning of the end for Hillsdale starting pitcher Erin Kapteyn.
Hillsdale then turned to the G-MAC Pitcher of the Year, Joni Russell, while the Oilers went to their ace, sophomore Emma Jones for the final few innings.
The two went back-and-forth, and it was Jones who faced adversity late as the Chargers looked to win the game in the bottom of the seventh.
Hillsdale got runners to second and third with two outs, but Jones coaxed a ground out to force extra innings.
Leading off the eighth, sophomore Brooke Radermacher ripped a double to left field and moved to third on a single by junior Avery Shepherd. Bredel was hit by a pitch to load the bases and senior Caroline Turner worked a walk, sending Radermacher home and putting the Oilers ahead 3-2.
Emma Jones worked around a one-out double in the bottom of the inning as the Oilers went on to claim the victory and force a second contest.
Jones picked up the win in relief, her 17th of the year, tied for fourth-most in a single-season in Oilers history. She came in relief of freshman Kayla Dykin who started and tossed four innings, allowing two runs on five hits. She struck out seven batters.
For the first three innings of the second game, freshman Alexys Antal, who had started just two games in the circle since the beginning of March, went toe-to-toe with Hillsdale's ace, Joni Russell.
Neither surrendered a run over the first three innings. In the top of the fourth, it was Hillsdale who finally was able to score, plating a single run.
After a pitching change to start the top of the fifth, the Chargers took control. A single, hit by pitch, and error loaded the bases for Hillsdale's Jenna Cantalupo, who would ultimately go on to earn Tournament MVP honors. Cantalupo drove a ball over the wall in left for a grand slam, putting the Chargers ahead 5-0.
Another home run in the fifth made it 6-0 and three more runs in the sixth made the score 9-0.
Findlay did manage a run in the bottom of the sixth, but it was too-little-tool-late as the team from Michigan was left celebrating the G-MAC title.
Following the conclusion of the tournament, the G-MAC named the All-Tournament Team selections. From Findlay, Makayla Cowan, Emma Jones, and Annika Bredel were named.
With a trip to the championship game, and a win over Hillsdale, the Oilers likely improved their stock within the region and now wait to see if their name will be called on Monday morning during the NCAA DII Selection Show.