ALMA, Mich. -- For the second straight year and the fourth time in program history, the Illinois Wesleyan softball team has won the NCAA Regional title, riding the two-hit pitching of
Mackenzie Marquis to claim a 4-1 win at Alma College on Sunday, May 14.
Illinois Wesleyan improved to 34-12 while the Scots bowed out at 29-10. For the second straight year, the Titans will play in a best-of-three Super Regional this weekend, squaring off against Transylvania University at John R. Hall Field in Lexington, Ky. Game one will be Friday at 4 p.m. ET and game two will be Saturday at 1 p.m. ET with the "if necessary" game to follow immediately after.
The Pioneers (34-11) have won 10 straight and beat No. 2 ranked Berry, 8-0 on Sunday to win the Berry (Ga.) Regional.
The winner of the best two-of-three super regional series, May 19-20, advances to the NCAA finals played this year in Oklahoma City, Okla., May 25-30.
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For the second straight year, Marquis was named the regional's "Most Outstanding Player" and was joined on the all-Regional team by freshman leftfielder
Sydney Alery, freshman shortstop
Sam Berghoff, freshman second baseman
Shelby Fulk and sophomore centerfielder
Jillian Runyon.
Marquis improved to 13-6 as she shutout the Scots for the first six innings and allowed an unearned run in the seventh. She walked four and had no strikeouts in the game, inducing 13 ground balls for outs and seven fly outs.
Marquis got all the offensive support she needed in the first inning from a two-run home run by Fulk with two outs after Alery had singled. Illinois Wesleyan tacked on two insurance runs in the sixth. With one out, Alery singled to center and Berghoff had an infield hit. Fulk hit into a force play to put runners at the corners for senior third baseman
Katie Caulfield's single that scored pinch-runner
Mia Massaro.
Junior rightfielder
Maggie Graham reached on a fielder's choice to load the bases and pinch-runner
Stephanie Prentice scored an unearned run on a passed ball after a
Julie Josten strikeout.
QUICK LOOK AT TRANSYLVANIA: The Pioneers beat Berry, 6-0 and 8-0, in the final two regional games on a four-hitter and a two-hitter by Renae Morton (20-7). She has a 1.53 earned run average with 175 strikeouts in 188 innings ... Senior Shelby Bailey hits .333 with 16 doubles and 20 runs batted in while freshman Sidney Motell (.420) and sophomore Shelbi Poehlein (.346) lead the team in batting average ... Transylvania's "newly renovated" home field re-opened for play on April 20.
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Making its sixth straight appearance, and 16th overall, into the NCAA Division III championships, Illinois Wesleyan has a 35-31 record (.530 winning percentage) in NCAA play, including trips in 2003 and 2016 to the final round in Salem, Va. ... Other NCAA Regional wins for IWU were in 2003, 2014 and 2016 ... IWU is 3-3 in the Super-Regional format, winning two-of-three at Luther College in 2016 and losing two-of-three to Wis.-Whitewater in Bloomington in 2014 ... The 34 wins is tied for eighth most in a single season for an IWU team. The school record is 41 (2014, 41-7) and the 2016 team had a record of 35-13 ... Runyon continues to add to her school single-season records of 54 runs scored and 55 steals. Her 64 hits is tied for third in a season with Molly Coers (2007) and behind Brynn Hasse (77, 2003) and Hannah Bowen (65, 2015).
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