Katie Zillner hit a two-run homer and tossed a complete game, leading The C of I to the Region I title
Sweet Home Alabama - C of I Wins Region I Title, World Series Next
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. -- The Southern Rock ballad "Sweet Home Alabama" will be blaring from The College of Idaho charter bus non-stop on their long trip home, as the Lady Yotes clinched their first-ever berth in the NAIA Women's Softball World Series Friday with a 6-3 victory over Oregon Tech in the title game of the 2008 NAIA Region I Tournament.
With the victory, the Coyotes (27-17) advance to next weekend's 20-team event at Wilson-Morgan Softball Complex in Decatur, Ala., beginning Friday. It marks the first time that a Cascade Conference team has advanced to the World Series since Concordia made the trip in 2001.
OIT (36-14), who had to rally to defeat top-seeded Simon Fraser, 5-4, in this morning's elimination game, took a 1-0 lead in the opening frame on a Katie King sacrifice fly, but the Yotes would come back, as Dani Villyard hit a solo home run in the second to tie the score. After Amber Sinicrope scored on a wild pitch to give Tech a 2-1 lead in the third, the Coyotes used the longball again in the bottom of the inning, as Katie Zillner hit a two-run bomb, followed by Villyard's second homer of the day to make it 4-2. Donnae Carrell added a two-run shot in the fourth to make it 6-2 - as the Coyotes set a school record with four homers on the day.
Tech would not go quietly, getting a Brittany Warren RBI single in the fifth to make it 6-3, but ran themselves out of the inning as King was thrown out by right fielder Stacy Smith trying to from first-to-third on the hit. OIT would bring the tying run to the plate both the sixth and seventh, but Zillner worked out of the trouble - getting Sunny Titus to pop out to end the threat in the sixth and Bess Fagan hit a screaming line drive to Stephanie Stover to end the game.
Villyard, who was named to the All-Region team this morning, went 3-for-3 for the Yotes, with Titus and Fagan each recording two hits for OIT. Zillner, who picked up her second-straight Region I MVP award, notched her 17th win of the season, striking out eight in her 20th-complete game of 2008.