Softball stole fire from the sky on Saturday to stun Wooster College and Denison University off of walk-off hits to return to the North Coast Athletic Conference championship game, where they dominated Denison 6-0 to claim their third straight NCAC title.
The game against Wooster seemed close to over, but in the blink of an eye, junior Lauren Godden shot a two-run double in the bottom of the seventh inning and erased an earlier 3-0 deficit and gave DePauw a 4-3 win.
Both teams battled through four scoreless innings in the winner’s bracket game before Wooster put three on the board in the fifth inning. Senior Gabby Smart responded by hitting a single with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning, and pinch-runner sophomore Sarah Beischer advanced to second base when junior Megan Montgomery reached on an error. Junior Liz Getz advanced both runners by grounding out, and then first-year Julia Bork brought home a pair with a shot to right field.
DePauw appeared to have evened the score in the sixth inning as first-year Abey Bass’s fly out to center field plated first-year Mina Shaw, but Wooster won an appeal that Shaw left third early. Shaw says the adversity did not affect the team’s attitude heading forward.
“I knew that the game wasn’t over and this particular situation was just testing our resiliency,” Shaw said.
Godden then drove in the winning runs in the bottom of the seventh inning after Montgomery singled with two outs silencing the Wooster faithful in attendance.
The following game against Denison followed the same script as the Wooster game.
Denison took the lead in the top of the fourth before the Tigers evened the count in the bottom of the inning as Godden singled, sophomore Sidney Holler walked and first-year Jordyn Fera singled and all scored.
Montgomery led off the seventh inning with a bunt single and moved to second base on Getz’s bunt single. Godden then reached on a fielder’s choice as an error on the play that allowed Montgomery to cross with the game-winner run to make the score 4-3 and send the team to the championship.
In the first championship game, DePauw nearly battled back from a 4-0 deficit before falling to Denison. Both teams battled through four scoreless innings before the Big Red broke through for four in the fifth inning.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Smart, who was named the tournament MVP, hammered a three-run homer to cut the deficit to 4-3. Bork believes that seniors like Smart are the reasons the team is able to stay in every game.
“Our captains do such a great job at keeping the team energetic and setting a phenomenal example,” Bork said.
In the championship game, DePauw grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second-inning. In the third, Getz led off with a single, advanced to second-base on a steal and moved to third-base on a wild pitch before Godden doubled her home and moved to third-base on Holler’s single. Smart made it 5-0 with a two-run single.
The Tigers later added a single run in the fifth inning as Bass singled and scored on Smart’s double to win the championship game 6-0.
Head Coach Erica Hanrahan says the trust the team has in each other is what led to this year’s title.
“The team really trusted their skills and their teammates playing on the field next to them,” Hanrahan said. “And once a team builds that trust, they are unstoppable.”
Besides Smart earning MVP honors, junior Emma Baldwin, Fera and Getz each made it onto the all-tournament team.
The win improves the team’s record to 23-19 overall. They will travel to Alma College in Alma, Michigan on Friday to take on the hosts in an NCAA regional. First pitch is set for 3:30 p.m.