Warriors, Cougars Win Big on First Day of NAIA Opening Round
PORTLAND, Ore.—No. 10 Saint Xavier (Ill.) and No. 11 Corban each earned eight-run, mercy-rule victories at Delta Park Monday to open the NAIA Softball National Championship Opening Round Concordia (Ore.) Bracket on Monday.
Corban (41-13), the second seed at the tournament started the day with a 16-8, six-inning win over third-seeded Concordia (34-22), before top-seeded Saint Xavier (47-6) beat fourth-seeded MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) 12-1 in five innings in the nightcap.
Corban and Saint Xavier will now face each other at 10 a.m. tomorrow, May 14, while Concordia and MidAmerica Nazarene (28-14) will face each other at 12:30 p.m. in an elimination game. The winner of the Concordia-MidAmerica Nazarene will then face the loser of the Corban-Saint Xavier game at 3 p.m. in another elimination game. The winner of that game will then face the winner of the Corban-Saint Xavier game for the right to advance to the NAIA Softball World Series on Friday.
Game 1—Corban 16, Concordia 8 (6 inn.) - BOX SCORE
The Corban Warriors took advantage of 11 walks to beat the Concordia Cavaliers 16-8 in only six innings Friday. The Cavaliers actually outhit the Warriors 14-9 in the game, but the Warriors’ 11 walks were 10 more than the Cavs earned in the game.
The Warriors still had two come back twice in the game, though, with their first deficit coming right out of the gate. The Cavs scored five runs in the top of the first, thanks largely to back-to-back home runs from Cassidy Horner and Mary Lugar, to take an early 5-0 lead. However, the Warriors’ first six batters reached safely in the bottom half of the inning, and all six batters scored to give Corban a 6-5 lead after a wild first inning.
The Cavs retook the lead with two runs in the top of the second, but the Warriors came back again, this time off a grand slam to center field from Brittany Chestnut in the bottom of the third. Chestnut’s grand slam put the Warriors up 10-7, and the team would not relinquish the lead after that.
Lugar hit her second solo home run of the day in the top of the fifth to bring the Cavs within two at 10-8, but the Warriors answered with four runs in the bottom of the inning to go up 14-8. Lounette Jackson brought the first two runs of the inning home for the Warriors on a double to left field.
The Warriors then came back with two more runs in the bottom of the sixth to put them up eight runs and the end the game. Courtney Castronovo had the walk-off hit to end the game for the Warriors, as she hit a double past a diving Katie Aden in center field, scoring Chestnut and Stephanie Nippert from first and second base, respectively.
Chesnut went 1-for-3 for the Warriors with three runs scored and five runs batted in, while Jackson went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and three runs batted in.
On the flip side, Tobey Varney and Taylor Copher each went 3-for-4 with a run scored for the Cavs, while Copher also added an RBI in the top of the second. Lugar, meanwhile, finished 2-for-3 with two runs scored and two runs batted in off her two home runs.
In the circle, Amy Greenough earned the win for the Warriors, while Ashley Suter picked up the loss for the Cavs.
Game 2—Saint Xavier 12, MidAmerica Nazarene 1 (5 inn.) - BOX SCORE
With dominant performances coming from the circle and the plate, the Saint Xavier Cougars ran past the MidAmerica Nazarene Pioneers, 12-1, in the second game within the Concordia (Ore.) Bracket of the NAIA Softball Opening Round Monday.
Megan Nonnemacher provided the dominance from the circle for the Cougars, as she recorded strikeouts on 12 of the Cougars’ 15 defensive outs in the game. Not surprisingly then, Nonnemacher earned the win for the Cougars after only giving up one run on four hits in five innings of work.
Meanwhile, several players provided the offense for the Cougars, as six different players scored two runs each. The Cougars spread out their offense over several innings, too, scoring three runs each in the first and second, four more in the third and two more in the fourth.
Kate Mollohan plated the first run of the game for the Cougars with a double to left-center field that scored Kasey Kanaga all the way from first. Mollohan then scored the second run of the innings for the Cougars on a two-out single from Holly Hilden.
Errors then cost the Pioneers in the second and third innings, as all seven of the Cougars’ runs between the two innings were unearned. Those seven runs put the Cougars up 10-0, and Nicole Nonnemacher added two more with a two-run single in the top of the fourth.
The Pioneers finally broke through with a run in the bottom of the fourth, but the Cougars were still up 12-1 by that point. A pair of doubles from Adriana Asano and Jen Polivka scored the run for the Pioneers.
Overall, the Cougars outhit the Pioneers 10-4, even as no Cougar player had more than two hits in the game. Mollohan, Hilden and Ashley Sullivan all led the Cougars with two hits, while Hilden and Nicole Nonnemacher led the Cougars with three runs batted in apiece.
On the flip side, no Pioneer had more than one hit in the game, and only Polivka and Jessica Scarlett escaped without being struck out by the Cougars’ Megan Nonnemacher.