NCAA Division III Super Regional Web Site

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- For the fourth straight season, Illinois Wesleyan is returning to the final round of the NCAA Division III Softball Championships after winning a pair of Super Regional elimination games against Carthage at IWU Softball Field on Saturday, May 18.

The Titans improved to 38-8 with wins of 1-0 and 4-1 over the Lady Reds, whose season ends with a 30-16 record. The 38-win plateau this season for Illinois Wesleyan has been surpassed by only four other Titan teams with the school record being 41 wins in 2014 (41-7).

Photo Gallery   |   Postgame Press Conference

This is the fourth consecutive season that IWU needed to battle back to win two games on the final day - the Titans lost the Super Regional openers in 2016 (at Luther), 2017 (at Transylvania) and 2018 (Wis.-Whitewater) before coming back to win two games to advance.

Senior outfielder Jillian Runyon and junior Ally Wiegand were selected as the Most Outstanding Player and Pitcher, respectively, of the Super Regional. Wiegand was the winning pitcher in both games on Saturday and set an IWU single-season mark of 23 victories, topping the previous standard of 22 shared by Christy Engel (22-5, 2009) and Molly McCready (22-4, 2014).

In the first game, junior leftfielder Brittany Murphy led off the second with a bunt single, went to second on a sacrifice bunt by freshman first baseman Colleen Palczynski and scored the game's only run on a double down the leftfield line by freshman catcher Hayley Earl.

In game two, which saw a two hour and four minute rain delay, the Lady Reds were limited to three hits by junior starter Brea Walker and Wiegand. Murphy, junior shortstop Sam Berghoff, Runyon and junior second baseman Shelby Fulk each had two hits in an 11-hit Titan attack as IWU scored single runs in the first and sixth and got a pair of runs in the second to snap a 1-1 tie and go ahead for good.

Once the remainder of the final eight teams are determined the updated bracket will be available here. Illinois Wesleyan will find out on Sunday, May 19, who they play in the first round of the NCAA III National Championships, held May 23-28 at Suddenlink Field on the campus of the University of Texas at Tyler, after the national committee has re-seeded the remaining teams.

Illinois Wesleyan is 5-1 this postseason and now has a 52-38 NCAA postseason record. For a complete list of all IWU Softball NCAA appearances go here.