Tigers Have Another Even Week Going Three and Three

Beth Walters

The Tiger softball team had an up-and-down week, sweeping a doubleheader from Kenyon on Wednesday, losing two straight from Denison on Thursday and splitting a doubleheader at Allegheny on Saturday to finish the week 3-3 in six key NCAC games.

As a result, the Tigers lost home field advantage for the NCAC Tournament and will have to travel to top seed Denison on Friday for a match-up against No. 3 seed Allegheny at 10 a.m. Wittenberg is the No. 2 seed with a 10-4 conference regular season record.

Wittenberg rounded out recent action at home Monday against OAC rival Otterbein and dropped a pair by scores of 6-0 and 13-12 in extra innings.

Against Kenyon, sophomore Norah Gillam (Canfield, Ohio/Canfield) was outstanding on the mount, hurling her third shutout of the season in Game 1, a 5-0 victory. Offensively, sophomore Katie Niemeyer (Findlay, Ohio/Findlay) and seniorBeth Walters (Westerville, Ohio/DeSales) finished with three hits each in the opener. In the nightcap, five players had multi-hit games, led by sophomore Katie Carver (Enon, Ohio/Greenon), who slammed her second home run in three games and drove in five runs.

Against Denison, the two-time defending NCAC regular season champion, the highlights were few and far between in losses of 7-2 and 9-1. Carver hit another home run in Game 1 and Walters collected two hits and an RBI in the nightcap, but it wasnt nearly enough.

Against Allegheny, Walters and junior Carmen Montgomery (South Charleston, Ohio/Southeastern) put together multi-hit games in the opener, a 6-4 squeaker that clinched second place in the NCAC. Gillam won her team-best eighth game. In the nightcap, however, Wittenberg rallied for a tying run in the seventh inning only to have Allegheny win it with two-out run in the bottom of the inning and a 3-2 victory.

Against Otterbein, sophomore Christy Cartaya (Mason, Ohio/Mt. Notre Dame) did not allow an earned run in the opener, but neither did the Cardinals in a 6-0 romp. Wittenberg was its own worst enemy, yielding six unearned runs on a season-high seven errors. Game 2 featured 33 hits between the two teams, including 17 for the Tigers, but errors again played a significant role. Montgomery and sophomore Jen Meyer (Solon, Ohio/Hathaway Brown) each banged out four hits to lead the offensive barrage.

Wittenberg takes on Capital Tuesday in a final tune-up for the NCAC tournament. In that game, Walters will be honored as the teams lone senior in her final home game. The Tigers are bidding for their first conference tournament title since 2000, when Wittenberg made its only appearance in the NCAA Division III Tournament.