at WIAC Championship hosted by UW-Whitewater |
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THIS WEEK'S GAMES: UW-Stout (21-10, 9-5 WIAC) will face a familiar foe when they open up the WIAC Softball Tournament at noon, Friday, May 4 at 1 p.m. (note time change) at UW-Whitewater. So familiar, that all the Blue Devils have to do is turn the scorebook back one page and see their opponent -
UW-Oshkosh (23-10, 10-4 WIAC). The Blue Devils and the Titans faced off Monday, April 30 in Stout's final conference game of the season and the Titans swept the series, 3-1, 11-4, at the UW-Oshkosh Softball Park, in essence bumping the Blue Devils down to the third seed in the tournament. The following day, the Titans extended their league-best winning streak to seven games, sweeping UW-La Crosse, 4-3, 4-2, taking the Eagles out of the tournament and earning the second seed in the tournament.
The opening day of the double-elimination league tournament begins with fourth-seeded UW-Eau Claire (20-16) facing fifth-seeded UW-River Falls (21-13) at 11 a.m. Friday. Stout and Oshkosh will follow at noon. Top-seeded and five-time defending WIAC tournament champion UW-Whitewater (22-11-1) will face the winner of the first contest. Friday's action concludes with an elimination contest at 5 p.m.
The WIAC Championship continues with three games Saturday, May 5, and culminates with the title game on Sunday, May 6. The winner of the WIAC Championship earns the league's automatic berth to the 62-team NCAA Division III Championship that begins May 10.
UW-Oshkosh is seeking to avenge a loss to UW-Stout in last year's WIAC Championship as the Blue Devils eliminated the Titans from the tournament by a 2-1 score. UW-Stout, which owns a 4-3 WIAC postseason record against UW-Oshkosh, also downed the Titans at the tournament in 2001, 2005 and 2014, while UW-Oshkosh defeated the Blue Devils in 2009, 2015 and 2016.
UW-STOUT:
Mary Iliopoulos is leading the team and the WIAC in batting average, posting a mark of .529 (45-85) with seven doubles, two triples and two home runs with 13 runs batted in. Iliopoulos was leading all of Division III in batting average, but has moved to seventh nationall. Iliopoulos and
Kyncaide Diedrich have run wild on the base paths with each nabbing 22 in 23 attempts. Iliopoulos is ranked 26th nationally in stolen bases, averaging 0.73 per game. Diedrich is averaging 1.00 stolen base per game, but has dropped out of the Division III rankings because she has not playing in 75 percent of the team's games, missing nine of the 31 games. Count the 44 stolen bases by the base-thieving duo and that still leaves 27 stolen bases to account for. Catcher
Rachel Thomas has stolen six bases in eight attempts. Freshman AJ Klosterman has been successful in all five attempts, as has
Kate Horn in four tries and
Jessica Daley in three attempts. Thirteen players has stolen at least one base this season. Diedrich is hitting .404 (29-72) with two doubles, three home runs and leads the team in RBI with 22.
Alicia Meyer,
Renee Murphy and
Sommer Kunstmann each also have three home runs as Stout has belted 19 round-trippers, the most since punching out a school record 33 in 2013.
Beth Wood has had her best all-around season, leading the Blue Devils in the pitching circle and having her most productive year at the plate. The senior dietetics major is hitting .400 (38-95), leads the team in doubles with 13 and has driven in 21 runs. Wood is posting a 10-4 record from the circle, with an ERA of 3.03, striking out 51 in 99.1 innings pitched. Meyer (.324, 23-71),
Rachel Thomas (.315, 29-92) and
Melea Bruns (.357, 10-28) are hitting over .300. Joining Wood in the circle are Bruns, who is 5-3 overall with 19 strikeouts in 50 innings pitched with an ERA of 2.52. Kunstmann is 4-3 overall with 20 strikeouts in 40.0 innings and an ERA of 3.33. Each has one save apiece. |
2018 Statistics
BLUE DEVILS LAST TIME OUT: UW-Stout was held to three hits in the opener and punched out 10 hits in the game two, but the results turned out to be the same as the Blue Devil were swept at UW-Oshkosh, 3-1, 11-4, in the Blue Devils' final conference games of the season. |
Story and Statistics
DOUBLE SACRIFICE: When
Rachel Thomas recorded two sacrifice flies in a 2-0 win over Lake Forest College, March 31, she joined a select group of Division III softball players. Hitting two sacrifice flies in a single game is not overly rare, but the NCAA does not keep the stat, nor does the WIAC. What is rare is to score the only two runs of the game in accomplishing the feat. Most games in an informal poll of Division III schools where two sacrifice flies were hit by the same player were in lopsided wins. It appears as if Thomas is the first UW-Stout player to do rap out to sac flies in a single game.
WIAC PRESEASON POLL: The Blue Devils were selected to finish fifth, according to a
WIAC preseason poll. UW-Whitewater was picked first, followed by UW-La Crosse, UW-Oshkosh and UW-Eau Claire. UW-Platteville, UW-River Falls and UW-Stevens Point were chosen sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively.
WIAC TOURNAMENT HISTORY: Stout has grabbed the tournament title once, that coming in 2005 at UW-Whitewater. Overall, Stout is 24-38 in WIAC tournament games. Stout finished second in 1995, a year the tournament was held in Menomonie. Stout last hosted the tournament in 2014.
UW-OSHKOSH: Oshkosh, which ranks second in the conference with a .325 batting average, features eight regulars hitting above .300 on the year. Senior third baseman Erika Berry has a .400 batting average while leading the Titans with 38 hits, eight doubles and a .468 on-base percentage. The three-time All-WIAC selection has 13 multiple-hit games this season Sophomore second baseman Amanda McIlhany is hitting .372 and leads UW-Oshkosh with 25 runs scored and three home runs. Junior first baseman Kaitlyn Krol has a team-high 25-runs batted in while batting .360 with 15 walks and just two strikeouts Titan regulars also hitting better than .300 are sophomore outfielder Acacia Tupa (.358), sophomore utility player Natalie Dillon (.317) and sophomore shortstop Natalie Dudek (.313). Tupa, who has compiled a .691 slugging and .458 on-base percentages, paces the WIAC with five triples and shares the team lead with three home runs. Freshman utility player Kailee Garstecki, who hit a two-run walk-off homer against UW-Stout this season, is hitting .429 in 35 at-bats. Sophomore utility player Claire Petrus has a .385 batting average and a .846 slugging percentage as nine of her 10 hits this year have gone for extra bases. A total of nine Titans have combined to hit 14 home runs this season, including Krol with two and one each from Berry, Garstecki, Petrus, freshman infielder Addison Brickson, junior catcher Abby Menting and freshman outfielder Carly Szada.
In the pitcher's circle, Petrus and junior Bailey Smaney have accounted for all but 27.2 of the Titans' innings as UW-Oshkosh sports a 3.39 earned run average on the year. Petrus has a 12-7 record with a 2.80 earned run average and 45 strikeouts in 107.2 innings pitched. She ranks second in the WIAC in both wins and innings pitched. Smaney is 9-2 with a team-leading 2.64 earned run average, 49 strikeouts and three saves in 79.2 innings pitched. Her .818 winning percentage is best in the conference. | 2018 Statistics
TITANS LAST TIME OUT: Claire Petrus drove in a pair of runs during the opener and earned a complete game victory in the pitcher's circle during the nightcap as the UW-Oshkosh softball team clinched second place in the WIAC standings by sweeping a doubleheader against UW-La Crosse in the regular season finale Tuesday (May 1) at the UW-Oshkosh Softball Park. UW-Oshkosh (23-10, 10-4 WIAC), which needed at least one win over UW-La Crosse to secure the second seed at the five-team WIAC Championship, hung on for a 4-3 victory in the first game and came back for a 4-2 triumph during the second contest. Nine different Titans contributed hits on the day as UW-Oshkosh reached 10 league wins for the fourth time in the past five seasons. | Game Story and Stats
LAST TIME STOUT AND OSHKOSH MET: UW-Stout was held to three hits in the opener and punched out 10 hits in the game two, but the results turned out to be the same as the Blue Devil were swept at UW-Oshkosh, 3-1, 11-4, in the Blue Devils' final conference games of the season. | Game Stories and Statistics
BLUE DEVILS LAST SEASON: The Blue Devils were 18-24 overall and 5-9 in league play. The Blue Devils advanced to the WIAC tournament, finishing one game short of the conference tournament title game. |
2017 Statistics
TEAM CAPTAINS: The 2018 team captains are seniors
Rachel Thomas and
Beth Wood and junior
Kaylee Francois.
AWARDS AND HONORS: Mary Iliopoulos was the UW-Stout/Toppers Athlete of the Week, April 30, after hitting .517 over eight games...
Beth Wood was the UW-Stout/Toppers Athlete of the Week and the WIAC Athlete of the Week, April 24, after going 3-0 on the weekend over UW-La Crosse and UW-Platteville and delivering two game-winning hits over the weekend...
Kyncaide Diedrich was the Fastpitch News Division III national player of the week, March 21, after the Blue Devils' trip to Florida, stealing 17 bases and batting .559 with 17 RBI...
Mary Iliopoulos was the WIAC athlete of the week and the UW-Stout/Toppers athlete of the week selection March 20 after batting .692 in Florida...
Mary Iliopoulos was the WIAC athlete of the week Feb. 27 after going 4-of-4 in two games of the opening week.
COACHES: Blue Devil coach
Becky Iaccino (74-73 overall / 56-55) is in her third year as the head coach of the Blue Devils. Iaccino played professionally in Italy
from 2003 to 2011 and with the Italian National team from 2005-07. She has been the head coach at Marian University where she was selected as conference coach of the year, and has eight years of experience as an assistant coach at Division I and III programs.
UW-OSHKOSH:
Scott Beyer (135-59) enters his fifth season as UW-Oshkosh's head softball coach. He owns a 112-49 overall record with the Titans. Beyer has coached eight UW-Oshkosh players to 14 total all-region honors and eight players to 16 total all-conference awards, including 2015 WIAC Pitcher of the Year Sara Brunlieb and 2016 WIAC Co-Postion Player of the Year Abby Menting. In 2014, a program record-tying five Titans received all-region accolades. In Beyer's first four seasons at the helm, UW-Oshkosh has established new school records in batting average, doubles, triples, home runs, stolen bases, slugging percentage and fielding percentage.
UW-RIVER FALLS: Amber Dohlman is in her third year with the Falcons.
UW-EAU CLAIRE: Leslie Huntington enters her 17th season in 2018 as Eau Claire's head softball coach. She is the Blugolds' all-time winningest coach and earned her 400th career win on March 20, 2016.
GRAND APPEARANCE:
Katelyn Schobert hit not only her first collegiate grand slam, but her first collegiate home run with a bases-loaded round tripper against Westfield State College, March 16, 2018, in Clermont, Fla.
Alicia Meyer hit a grand slam against the College of Mount St. Vincent, March 14. Meyer had six RBI in the game. Previous to Meyer's grand slam, the last 4-RBI round tripper came March 8, 2013 by Alison Gray against St. Olaf College.
GRAND SLAMS (Since 2013)
Katelyn Schobert vs. Westfield State College, March 16, 2018
Alicia Meyer vs. the College of Mount St. Vincent, March 14, 2017
Alison Gray vs. St. Olaf College, March 8, 2013
