#5 UW-Whitewater 2, #1 Louisiana College 1

Homerun Propels Warhawks into Title Game

May 19, 2008

 

SALEM, Va. --- UW-Whitewater's Suzanne Gersich homered to left center to drive the Warhawks to a 2-1 victory over top-seeded Louisiana College in Game 13 of the 2008 NCAA Division III Softball Championship. Gersich's game-winning homerun was UW-Whitewater's sixth in the tournament. The Warhawks will face fellow Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletics Conference (WIAC) member, UW-Eau Claire, in the title game later this afternoon

 

“I think that it was more of the mentality that I had of just wanting to hit the ball as hard as I could," said Gersich on hitting her game-winning homerun. "It was my favorite pitch right, over the plate, so that’s why I hit it.”

 

Louisiana's only tally of afternoon came in the sixth frame off a McCaslin Carson double to center field, which allowed teammate Erica Harwell to cross home plate. 

 

The Lady Wildcats had a golden opportunity in the fourth inning that did not materialize.  Louisiana had the bases loaded with nobody out, but the UW-Whitewater defense rallied when Warhawk pitcher Jessica Stang fanned two Lady Wildcat batters and then threw out a baserunner at first to quickly end the inning.

 

Stang pitched all seven innings, giving up five hits and one one run while striking out  13 Louisiana batters.

 

Louisiana  pitcher, Carson, pitched a complete-game and allowed two hits on four runs with four punch outs.

 

"To finish third in this tournament for the first time that we have been here, I just can’t say enough," said Louisiana's head coach Tim Whittman. "I’m proud of the kids and I wouldn’t trade them for the world."

 

UW-Whitewater (39-10) appears in the NCAA Division III Softball Championship title game for the second time in school history and will face UW-Eau Claire (35-11) in this year's title game. This is the third time that two WIAC schools have met in a Division III national championship; UW-Riverfalls and UW-Stevens Point met in the 1993 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Championship and UW-Riverfalls faced UW-Superior in the 1994 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Championship.  Louisiana College (44-7) bows out of the tournament with a third place trophy in tow.