WILMINGTON, Ohio - The Wittenberg Tigers put the finishing touches on the 2009 season with a sweep of Wilmington. By scores of 6-2 and 5-0, the Tigers ran their string to five wins in the last six games to cap the campaign at 18-20 overall.
Despite the strong finish, Wittenberg's season comes to an end thanks to tiebreaker criteria. The Tigers finished 8-6 in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC), but their fourth-place tie with Ohio Wesleyan was broken in favor of the Battling Bishops.
While Wittenberg missed out on postseason play, the Tigers did manage to send seniors Rachael Hatcher (West Carrollton, Ohio/West Carrollton) and Julie Ziegler (Sandusky, Ohio/Perkins) out on a high note. Hatcher took the ball in the second game and picked up her 13th win, 15th complete game and sixth shutout of the 2009 campaign, while lowering her NCAC-best earned run average to a miniscule 0.98. The school record for ERA in a season is 0.97, posted by Becky Deehr in 1992. Hatcher was just the second pitcher in school history to break the 1.00 ERA plateau in a season.
The NCAC's second-best ERA belongs to Tiger junior Brooke Boswell (Hamilton, Ohio/Fairfield), who was nearly as dominant as Hatcher in the opener. Her ERA actually rose ever so slightly to 1.78 as she allowed two earned runs in a complete-game six-hitter. She helped her own cause at the plate, collecting two hits and two runs batted in. She also stole a base, one of six recorded by Wittenberg in the game.
Ziegler added an RBI hit in the opener and 18 more putouts at first base, running her career total to 846, second in school history behind Carissa Clagg, who posted a staggering 967 between 1998 and 2001.