CSU, Valparaiso Advance in Winners Bracket

No. 5 Cleveland State 5, No. 4 Green Bay 2
No. 5 Cleveland State got the bats hot early as the Vikings used an early four-run lead in the first inning to eventually top No. 4 Green Bay 5-2.

Katelind Phillips kicked-off the scoring rally in the first with a single to center field while Susan Knight followed suite and singled up the middle. Horizon League Player of the Year, Erica McNew, singled off of a solid line-drive down the right field line to score Phillips and put the first run of the Championship on the board. The Vikings would then collect two more hits and take advantage of two Green Bay errors to tally four runs in the inning.

Green Bay would put its own runs on the scoreboard in the bottom of the third inning after Allie Hislope receive a free pass to first and Hailee Frey advanced her off of a bunt single. Abby Brinkmeier would also single off of a bunt that led to the eventual Kelli Hutchinson RBI. Acacia Tupa then hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score Hislope as Green Bay closed the scoring gap within two runs.

Cleveland State scored its final run of the ballgame in the top of the sixth and keep Green Bay scoreless in the bottom and in the seventh to go on and take the victory.

Phillips, Knight and Ries led the Vikings with two hits each with Ries, McNew and Alyson Broschk claiming the RBIs.

Frey led the Pheonix going 2-for-3 at the plate in addition to scoring one run.

Knight picked up the win for Cleveland State in the circle and is now 8-13 on the season.

No. 6 Valparaiso 10, No. 3 Youngstown State 6
Youngstown State got on the board first with a home run by Miranda Castiglione but Valparaiso outlasted the Penguins 10-6.

The contest went back-and-forth for a few innings with Valparaiso taking two in the top of the second on a free pass to Taylor Nadler that moved to third on a sacrifice bunt and single. Lanie Callaghan singled up the middle to score Nadler and Carly Trepanier collected the second RBI of the inning to put the Crusaders up 2-1.

Valparaiso would add one to its lead in the top of the third off of a Jorgi Calombaris single to left single but the Penguins would bounce back in the bottom of the frame to score two of its own. Cali Mikovich started the rally with a home run to right field while a Castiglione got on-base off of a walk and hit the plate from a double by Brittney Moffatt.

With the game tied 3-all at the top of the fourth, Valpariaso rallied the bats once more to gain two runs beginning with a single from Brenna Boyle in combination with an error, another Trepanier single and a bases-loaded walk.

Youngstown State scored two more runs in the bottom of the sixth to bring the game within one run but a four-run inning by Valparaiso in the seventh was too much for the Penguins to overcome in their three remaining outs.

Carly Trepanier led Valparaiso at the plate going 3-for-4 with two RBI while Sam Stewart knocked-in three runs for the Crusaders.

Moffatt collected three hits for Youngstown State while Castiglione and Lacatena each notched two, respectively.

Taylor Weissenhofer earned the win for the Crusaders in the circle with a complete-game.