NCAA Division III Final Bracket
NCAA D-III Softball Website
2018 NCAA Division III Softball Finals Website
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – The No. 24-ranked Illinois Wesleyan softball team (40-13-1) will play a winner-take-all game against defending champion and No. 1-ranked Virginia Wesleyan (54-3) at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, May 29, to determine the NCAA Division III national champion at OGE Energy Field at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium.
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Guaranteed a first- or second-place finish, this is the deepest Illinois Wesleyan has ever advanced at the NCAA Softball Championships, with their previous best placing being a third-place finish in 2003. For a complete list of Illinois Wesleyan softball postseason results go
here.
One more win will tie the school record for victories in a season, which is 41 in 2014 (41-7). The Titans have set school season records for games played (54), at bats (1462), runs scored (306), hits (457), home runs (43) and runs batted in (271).
Junior centerfielder
Jillian Runyon has set single season records in at bats (183) and runs scored (61) and sophomore shortstop
Sam Berghoff has established new Illinois Wesleyan season marks in hits (78), doubles (21), home runs (13), runs batted in (68), and total bases(146). She also has a season-best .890 slugging percentage and her career .774 slugging percentage is a school record.
Sophomore pitcher
Ally Wiegand (19-4) has the season record with 227 strikeouts.
In other career totals, Berghoff is second with a .423 batting average, tied for second with 21 homers, tied for fifth with 35 doubles and sixth with 109 runs batted in.
Runyon is the school's all-time leader in runs scored (166) and stolen bases (147) and is fourth all-time in both at bats (514) and hits (184).
BEHIND ENEMY LINES: The Marlins have won 50 games for the second year in a row and have tied the NCAA Division III record for wins in a season they set last year. In Division III softball history, only five teams have ever hit the 50-victory milestone (VWU in 2017 and 2018, Tufts and UT-Tyler in 2015 and Linfield in 2011) ... Coming into the championship round, sophomore lefthanded pitcher Hanna Hull, the reigning DIII Player of the year, led the country in victories (35) and strikeouts (316). Manning the rubber for 226.2 innings, Hull has been instrumental in the Marlins success as she has produced an ERA of just 1.05. This season she has pitched 22 complete games, including a perfect game against Salem early in the year. This year, she was the Old Dominion Athletic Conference's Pitcher of the Year, was also named to the All-Tournament team at both the ODAC Championship (as well as Pitcher of the Tournament) and the NCAA Super Regional Most Outstanding Pitcher ... A three-time All-America first team selection, senior first baseman Cassetty Howerin came into NCAA finals play batting .436 with 59 hits, including 23 extra base knocks. Howerin has a terrific eye at the plate too as she has only struck out three times this year and is just two walks away from breaking the Division III career walk record.
