Tigers Reach NCAC Tournament With Sweep Of Wooster
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — The Wittenberg Tigers started slow but finished with a bang to pick up a pair of victories over visiting Wooster. By scores of 3-2 in eight innings and 11-5, the Tigers swept the doubleheader and put themselves into the four-team North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Tournament.
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — The Wittenberg Tigers started slow but finished with a bang to pick up a pair of victories over visiting Wooster. By scores of 3-2 in eight innings and 11-5, the Tigers swept the doubleheader and put themselves into the four-team North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Tournament.
Wittenberg improved to 17-17 overall but, more importantly, 8-4 in the NCAC to assure themselves of a top-four finish. Wooster dropped into a fifth-place tie with Kenyon at 5-7 in the league, meaning that neither team can catch the Tigers. The Scots are now 19-19 overall.
Wittenberg wraps up the 2010 regular season with a doubleheader at Hiram, scheduled for noon Saturday. The Tigers could still finish anywhere from first to fourth in the final standings, with the NCAC Tournament scheduled for May 7-8 on the home field of the regular season champion. Wittenberg has never hosted an NCAC Tournament since it was started in 2001 — the Tigers won the title in 2000, before the tournament was instituted, and 2003 on Denison's home field.
The Tigers were forced to rally in the opener against Wooster after giving up a pair of unearned runs in a sloppy first inning. From that point, senior Brooke Boswell (Hamilton, Ohio/Fairfield) shut the Scots down, giving the Tiger offense a chance to rally, starting with a two-run double by junior Jessi Allen (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) in the sixth and culminating with a game-winning sacrifice fly by senior Jade Chivington (Bellefontaine, Ohio/Bellefontaine) in the eighth.
Boswell went all eight innings, allowing eight hits but zero walks. Allen finishing 3-for-4 to lead the offense, which banged out 10 hits in the game.
The second game had the look of a blowout after the Tigers took a 7-0 lead into the fifth inning. However, the Scots rallied for five runs in the fifth and sixth to make it close. Wittenberg delivered the knockout blow in the bottom of the sixth as sophomore Tori Amicon (Galloway, Ohio/Hilliard Darby) knocked in a run with a sacrifice fly before Chivington crushed a three-run homer.
The early offensive outburst made a winner out of Boswell for the 14th time in the 2010 season. She allowed just two hits in four innings before giving way to a trio of relievers who got the job done.