WAVERLY, Iowa – The No. 24-ranked Wartburg College softball team opened the American Rivers Conference Tournament on Thursday, May 13 at Lynes Field, dropping games against the University of Dubuque and Central College.
Coe College and Wartburg finished first and second in the A-R-C regular season standings to receive the No. 1 and 2 seeds while hosting the 2021 playoffs. Wartburg welcomed No. 3 Central College, No. 6 Nebraska Wesleyan University, and No. 7 University of Dubuque to Waverly.
Wartburg, now 26-10 overall, is knocked out of the A-R-C playoffs and will hope for an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament. The Division III softball selection show takes place on Monday, May 17 at 12 p.m.
WATCH THE SELECTION SHOW HERE.
Dubuque 15, Wartburg 4
The Knights opened the day and surrendered a season-high 15 runs off 15 hits, putting the Orange & Black in a hole to force a comeback in the double elimination formatted tournament.
Dubuque claimed a 4-0 lead after two innings and tallied runs in all but one inning, padding its lead with eight runs in the sixth and seventh innings combined.
Wartburg twice came within two runs of the Spartans, scoring a pair of runs in the second and fourth innings.
In the second,
Olivia Brecht and
Tarah Wehde each batted in runs with bases on balls. In the fourth,
Kaci Sherwood and
Sydney Fellows added RBI singles to trim UD's lead to 6-4. It was the closest the Knights cut into the Spartan's lead, however.
The Knights totaled 10 base hits but left 12 runners on base.
Wehde started in the pitcher's circle and lasted two innings after allowing four earned runs to suffer the loss, moving her record to 6-4.
Central 5, Wartburg 4
Once again, the Knights found themselves in an early deficit, conceding four runs in the first. After Central fell to NWU during the opening game of the day, both teams had their seasons on the line.
Wartburg scored in the bottom half on an RBI single from Brecht. Central added another in the third and once again the Knights responded in the bottom half with a clutch hit from Brecht. She tattooed her first homer of the year, a two-run bomb over the left center fence to cut the Dutch lead to two. Wartburg added another on a Central error to set the deficit at 5-4.
Central's starting pitcher Sydney Huisman held the Knights' scoreless through the final four innings to earn the win.
Ashley Nelson pitched a solid seven innings despite receiving the loss, dropping her record to 10-3.
For more information on Wartburg Athletics, follow the Knights on Twitter, Instagram, like us on Facebook, or sign up for text updates/score alerts from the rainedout.net text-messaging system.
