DEARBORN, Mich. – The Lourdes softball team (12-17, 9-11 in WHAC) swept the Michigan-Dearborn Wolverines (16-20, 10-10 in WHAC) on the road on Monday afternoon to clinch their first WHAC Tournament appearance since the 2016 NAIA National Tournament team.
Lourdes needed to win both games against the Wolverines to leapfrog Defiance into the top-8 seeds due to a three-way tiebreaker scenario. The Gray Wolves did just that, eclipsing not only Defiance, but also Aquinas, to earn the No. 7-seed in the tournament.
Lourdes will face Indiana Tech in the first round of the conference tournament at noon on Friday, Apr. 24. The Warriors are hosting their pool that includes Lourdes, Lawrence Tech and Michigan-Dearborn. The last time the Gray Wolves faced Indiana Tech,
Taylor Leggins hit a walk-off three-run home run to win game two of their doubleheader.
In fact, despite being on the lower half of the bracket, Lourdes has beaten the majority of the postseason teams at least once this season. Their wide variety of victories have given the Gray Wolves their best conference record in program history at 9-11.
Game 1: W, 5-3
Lourdes' first step to making the tournament was winning game one against UMD. The feat was not easy as the Wolverines got off to a 3-1 lead through the first four innings.
Despite being down a pair of runs, spirits were high as
Mallori Bradley threw six strong innings, with just three hits allowed and five strikeouts. Offensively, junior first baseman
Taylor Leggins struck first for Lourdes with an RBI-single in the third inning.
Although the Wolverines hit two home runs in the middle innings, Lourdes fought right back with an RBI-double by
Cami Heath and an RBI-single by
Maddie Darrah in the sixth. The clutch hits tied the game at three apiece and put the home team on edge.
Then, in the seventh inning, on the first pitch of her at-bat, junior shortstop
Lindsey McGann launched a two-run home run to give Lourdes the 5-3 lead. The long ball scored
Jessyca Smith, who led the inning off with an eight pitch walk.
Sophomore
Cassi Kieper came in to close the door in the seventh with three strikeouts as Lourdes completed the comeback victory.
Game 2: W, 14-7
The second game followed a similar script to game one, except with way more offense. Michigan-Dearborn got off to a 4-0 start off of the Gray Wolves' starting pitcher,
Cassi Kieper.
Despite the rough start, freshman
Zoe Ziems came in for relief in the fourth and threw virtually lights out the rest of the way. Ziems gave up three earned runs on four hits in the final four innings.
With seven total runs allowed, Lourdes found offense in the fourth and fifth innings to completely counteract the Michigan-Dearborn surge. A five-run fourth and a five-run fifth were more than enough to complete the victory.
Skylar Mitchell notched three RBI's,
Ava Auler,
Lindsey McGann and
Jessyca Smith each collected two RBI's, and
Taylor Leggins ended the fifth inning with an RBI-single for Lourdes' 10
th run.
Lourdes entered the seventh inning up by three runs, but got some insurance with an RBI-double by
Robyn Ryan and a bases clearing double by
Taylor Leggins.
Stats
Taylor Leggins' big week brings her regular season total to a .329 average. She also by far leads the team with 29 RBI's and five home runs.
Lindsey McGann becomes the third player on the team to hit a home run. She is also second on the team in hits and RBI's.
Next Up
You can follow along with the Lourdes softball post-season run at lourdesathletics.com by clicking on the livestream and live stat link icons next to the games on the season schedule.
