UW-L Falls to Wartburg in NCAA III First Round; Faces St. Thomas in Elimination Game

For Immediate Release: Thursday, May 7, 2009

Indianola, Iowa – The UW-La Crosse softball team fell 5-4 to Wartburg College (Iowa) Thursday afternoon in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III First Round at Simpson College in Indianola.

The fifth-seeded Eagles, now 34-11 on the season, will face top-seeded the University of St. Thomas (Minn.) Friday, May 8 at 11 a.m. in an elimination game. The Tommies fell 3-1 to eighth-seeded Webster University (Mo.) in the first game Thursday afternoon.

Wartburg College, the fourth seed in the first round of the tournament, improves to 37-6 with its win over UW-L. The Knights will play sixth-seeded Luther College (Iowa) at 4 p.m. Friday in a winner's bracket game. Luther beat third-seeded Washington University (Mo.) by the score of 1-0 in 10 innings Thursday.

UW-L took a 3-0 lead with three runs in the top of the third against Wartburg. Lena Long opened the inning with a walk and later scored on Jenna Ahnen's fielder's choice to make it 1-0. Cara Salm folllowed with an RBI single to make it 2-0 to score Rachel Croak and Natalie Stoll later knocked in Ahnen with a run-scoring single for a 3-0 Eagles' lead.

Croak hit a two-out single in the top of the fourth and after stealing second, scored on a Rachel Weyer RBI single to make it 4-0.

Wartburg cut the lead to 4-2 in the bottom of the fourth on two unearned runs as UW-L had three errors. Amy Daniels scored on an error for the first run and Beth Schaufenbuel made it 4-2 after coming in on Paige Gerstner's fielder's choice.

The score remained at 4-2 until the Knights tallied three times in the bottom of the sixth. Gerstner singled with one out and after Ashley Rogers struck out looking, Emily Braem doubled to put runners on second and third. Lexy Determan then hit a two-out three-run home run to give Wartburg a 5-4 lead.

With one out in the top of the seventh, Ahnen walked and Salm singled for UW-L. Katie Keyes then struck out and Stoll grounded out to end the game.

Kaylyn Von Glahn took the loss for UW-L, pitching 1.0 inning, allowing three hits and three runs while striking out one. Heather Schultz started for the Eagles, going 5.0 innings, allowing five hits and two runs (both unearned) with one strikeout. Croak finished 3-for-4 at the plate with two runs scored while Salm was 2-for-4 with an RBI.

Determan earned the win for Wartburg, pitching 7.0 innings, allowing eight hits, four runs and three walks while striking out seven. She was also 1-for-3 at the plate with the three-run home run. Schaufenbuel and Braem were each 2-for-3 with a run scored.

UW-L is making its second appearance in school history in the NCAA III Tournament. The Eagles went 2-2 in the 1986 regional round.