2016 Bloomington, Ill. Softball Regional Web Site

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The Illinois Wesleyan softball team will be making its fifth straight appearance, and 15th overall, into the NCAA Division III championships and will host Hanover College at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, May 13, in the opening round of the regional.

No. 1-seeded IWU, with a 30-10 record, received an at-large bid into the NCAA regional. The regional's No. 4 seeded Hanover Panthers are 20-18 this season and earned the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference automatic bid after capturing the school's first tournament championship in the HCAC tournament.

The Bloomington, Ill., regional begins with a 1 p.m. game on Friday featuring No. 2-seed DePauw University (29-16) against No. 3-seed Washington U.-St. Louis (34-10).

On Saturday, the winning teams will play at 11 a.m. with Friday's losing teams facing each other at 1:30 p.m. The two 1-1 teams will play an elimination game at 4 p.m. Saturday, leaving just two two teams to play for the regional title on Sunday at 12 p.m.

All tickets are general admission with the prices being $6 for adults, $4 for seniors (62 and over) and students, and $3 for children under 12 years old. Children under 2 will be admitted free. No season passes or other special passes will be accepted.

This is the third year for the NCAA Division III softball postseason to feature 14 four-team regionals and two three-team regionals. The 16 winners will advance to play in Super Regionals (best two-of-three series) on May 20-21 with the Bloomington, Ill., winner meeting the winner from the Decorah, Iowa (Luther College) regional.
The eight Super Regional winners will play in the finals, hosted May 26-31 at the Moyer Sports Complex in Salem, Va.

TITAN NOTES: Historically, IWU teams have posted a 27-28 record (.491 winning percentage) in 14 previous NCAA competitions ... Senior catcher Danielle Smith is leading the team with a .393 average with 10 doubles, two homers and 25 runs batted in ... Senior shortstop Sam Gudat, who led the conference in hitting, is at .339 and senior leftfielder Mary Rankin is batting .331 with a team-high 28 runs batted in ... Leading the pitchers are sophomore Mackenzie Marquis (14-5, 2.64 ERA) and senior Jenna Noland (12-4, 2.03 ERA) ... In her third season as head coach, former Titan catcher Kat McCreery has a 107-27 overall record ... This is IWU's fifth straight season with 30 or more wins and 15th time in the last 17 years.

HANOVER COLLEGE: The Blue and Red will enter as one of the hottest teams in the region as they have won six of their last seven overall ... The Panthers have won 20 games for the first time since 1999 and are making their first NCAA tournament appearance in program history ... Hanover needed to defeat Anderson in a winner-take-all game Saturday and Lillian Hughes hit a seventh inning home run to give the Panthers a 7-6 win ... Hanover has been led by freshman pitcher Sydney Griffin, who is 14-7 and has struck out a conference leading 115 batters. Griffin earned all three wins in the conference tournament en route to being named "MVP" ... Entering the HCAC tournament, Gabby Ritchey ranked among the top 20 in the nation in stolen bases per game at 0.81. She now has 30 on the season and has a team high .451 on-base percentage ... Lyndsea Burke (.400) and Dabney Skutt (.348) lead the team in batting averages and Skutt has been one of the toughest batters to strike out in the NCAA this season, doing so twice in 107 at-bats, ranking her 26th in the nation ... McKenzie Writt (.325) leads the Panthers with nine doubles and 34 RBI.

DePAUW UNIVERSITY: In for the third straight year, DePauw University has made eight NCAA Division III appearances in the last 10 years and finished fifth in the NCAA national championships last season ... The Tigers also finished fifth in the NCAA in 2007, 2010 and 2011 ... DePauw gained an at-large bid after falling to Wittenberg in the North Coast Athletic Conference championship game ... Sophomore outfielder Liz Getz is batting .413 with 10 doubles, two triples and two homers ... Sophomore catcher Lauren Godden is batting .393 with seven doubles, nine home runs and 39 RBI ... Sophomore Emma Baldwin is 14-9 with four saves and a 2.27 earned run average in the circle. She has struck out 152 in 123 1/3 innings ... DePauw has a 29-17 (.630) record in NCAA postseason play ... Erica Hanrahan has a 114-69 record in her fourth season as head softball coach at DePauw. A 2000 graduate of St. Peter's College (N.J.), Hanrahan was a pitcher and her name remains in many categories in the school record books. She led the school to its first softball conference championship and was team captain as a senior.

WASHINGTON U.-ST. LOUIS: No. 23-ranked Washington University in St. Louis will be playing for the first time since April 28 and has played only four games since April 17 ... WashU is in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight year and for the 14th time in school history, receiving an at-large bid to the championships ... Senior Annie Pitkin has a 20-5 record with a 1.48 earned run average and has fanned 224 batters in 147 innings ... Sophomore Maggie Clapp is 10-5 with a 1.24 ERA ... The Bears have three players hitting over .400 - junior leftfielder Hannah Mehrle (.497), senior first baseman Brooke Hofer (.428) and junior centerfielder Janet Taylor (.425). Mehrle has 10 doubles, seven triples, four home runs and 37 runs batted in while Taylor has six doubles, three triples, five homers and 42 RBI ... In 10 seasons, WashU head coach Leticia Pineda-Boutté has posted a 350-131-1 record ... The Bears have 10-straight seasons of at least 25 wins under Pineda-Boutté with six University Athletic Association titles and 10 NCAA appearances ... WashU has an all-time postseason record of 24-26 (.486) in 13 previous trips. The Bears won the school's lone regional title in 2007 and advanced to the College World Series before falling in the national championship game.