WHITEWATER, Wis. (blugolds.com) – The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire softball team continued their run in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Tournament on Friday morning as they faced off in an elimination game against UW-Stevens Point. A late rally off back-to-back Blugold home runs and a tally off a wild pitch sent the game into extra innings as both teams fought to stay alive in the tournament. A heartbreaking sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th inning would end UWEC Softball's season as they fell to the Pointers, 4-3.
A defensive battle loomed in the opening innings of the WIAC elimination game as both teams were kept off the scoreboard through three innings of play. Madi Zerr (Sr. – Bristol, Wis./Wilmot Union) and the Blugold defense stranded four UWSP runners and recorded two strikeouts to keep the Pointers off the board. Stevens Point found the first tallies of the day in the bottom of the fourth on three scattered RBI singles to take a 3-0 lead after four innings of play.
Despite the deficit, UW-Eau Claire battled back as Paige Lathrop (Fr. – South Milwaukee, Wis.) and Megan Patterson (So. – Johnsburg, Ill.) hit back-to-back home runs over the center field fence on back-to-back pitches to cut the UWSP to 3-2 in the top of the fifth. UWEC and Hailey Hagedorn (Fr. – Farmington, Minn.) silenced the Pointers in the following five innings allowing only one hit and stranding two baserunners. After a single to left field, an outfielder error, and a sacrifice bunt by Kenna Strunsee (So. – Waukesha, Wis.), Chloe Garofalo (So. – Kenosha, Wis.) sprinted across home in the top of the sixth inning to tie the contest at 3-3.
During the extra innings of play, UW-Eau Claire found their chances with runners on base but could not find their way across home. UW-Stevens Point tallied the final run of the contest on a sacrifice fly to right field that sent a runner from third across home plate for the winning run.
The Blugolds finish their season with a record of 17-19 after falling in the WIAC tournament.
