Friday-Sunday, May 4-6, 2018 - Purcell Athletic Fields, Notre Dame, Ind.
| NCAA Tournament Site |
Preview: The No. 3-seeded Ohio Northern softball team will travel to Notre Dame, Ind., this weekend for the NCAA III Notre Dame Regional Tournament ... The Polar Bears will face No. 2 seed Case Western Reserve in the first game of the double-elimination tournament on Friday at Noon ... Ohio Northern will be making its ninth appearance in the NCAA III Regionals and its first since 2012 ... ONU won Regional titles and advanced to the World Series in 2009 and 2012 ... The Polar Bears earned the automatic bid from the Ohio Athletic Conference by winning the OAC Tournament last weekend as the No. 3 seed ... Northern defeated Heidelberg 2-0 and #21-ranked Otterbein 3-2 and 3-2 ... Seniors Jenna Hollar, Miranda Huddle and Kirsten Lightel and sophomore Gabby Stewart were named to the All-Tournament Team ... Hollar leads the team and the OAC with a school record 40 stolen bases and leads the team and is second in the OAC with a .445 batting average ... Her 1.05 stolen bases per contest ranks sixth nationally ... She is ONU's all-time career stolen base leader with 123 and is the sixth player in ONU history to reach the 200-hit plateau in her career ... Hollar is also fifth at ONU with 145 career runs scored ... Sophomore Gabby Stewart currently leads the team and is third in the OAC with 38 RBI this season and is hitting at a .395 clip ... Sophomore Brady Guest is second on the team with a .398 batting average ... In the pitchers circle, Lightel leads the team and OAC with 18 victories and a 1.19 ERA ... She is second in the conference with 128 K's this season ... She is the only pitcher in school history to toss 100 strikeouts in each of her four seasons as a Polar Bear and is ONU'a all-time career strikeout leader with 498 ... Junior Kaitlin Surdej ranks second on the team and fourth in the OAC with a 2.63 ERA and is second on the team and tied for fourth in the conference with 12 victories in the circle ... She is also fifth in the OAC with 70 strikeouts ... After the ONU-CWRU game on Friday, top seeded, tournament host and No. 10-ranked Saint Mary's (Ind.) will face fourth-seeded Mount Aloysius (Pa.) at 2:30 pm ... Three games will be played on Saturday with two teams being eliminated ... Game 3 will feature Friday's winners at 11 am and Game 4 will include the losers from Friday's games in an elimination contest at 1:30 pm ... The Game 4 winner will face the Game 3 loser at 4 pm on Friday in another elimination game ... A champion will be crowned on Sunday with Game 6 at Noon between the two remaining teams ... If the Game 5 winner wins, a Game 7 will be played at 2:30 pm ... The Regional champion will advance to the Super Regional next weekend against the winner of the Holland, Michigan Regional ... The winner of the best-of-3 Super Regional will advance to the World Series May 24-29 at Oklahoma City, Okla.
Ohio Northern Batting Leaders
| |
Batting Ave. |
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|
|
Hits |
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|
|
Runs |
|
|
|
RBI |
|
|
|
Home Runs |
|
| 1. |
Hollar |
.445 |
|
1. |
Hollar |
61 |
|
1. |
Hollar |
49 |
|
1. |
Stewart |
38 |
|
1. |
Guest |
5 |
| 2. |
Guest |
.398 |
|
2. |
Stewart |
47 |
|
2. |
Swierz |
22 |
|
2. |
Guest |
27 |
|
2. |
Loughman |
4 |
| 3. |
Stewart |
.395 |
|
3. |
Guest |
37 |
|
3. |
Stewart |
21 |
|
3. |
Loughman |
20 |
|
3. |
Stewart |
3 |
Ohio Northern Pitching Leaders
| |
Wins |
|
|
|
ERA |
|
|
|
Strikeouts |
|
| 1. |
Lightel |
18 |
|
1. |
Lightel |
1.19 |
|
1. |
Lightel |
128 |
| 2. |
Surdej |
12 |
|
2. |
Surdej |
2.63 |
|
2. |
Surdej |
70 |
Series Notes: Case Western Reserve is 2-0 all-time against Ohio Northern ... The Polar Bears have not faced either Saint Mary's or Mount Aloysius in program history.
ONU head coach Jackie Price: Price is in her second season as head coach of the Polar Bears and owns an 55-22 record, a winning percentage of .714.
