Box Score The Carthage College softball team (30-11, 12-2 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked 22nd in the May 8 National Fastpitch Coaches Association NCAA Division III poll, opened play in the NCAA Division III Softball Championship on Thursday, May 9 with a 6-4 loss to No. 18 Luther College (29-9) in Great Lakes Regional play at Wisconsin-Whitewater's Van Steenderen Softball Diamond in Whitewater, Wis.  Carthage was seeded fourth in the regional and Luther fifth.
 
On the same side of the eight-team regional bracket, top-seeded and No. 11 Wisconsin-Whitewater (32-5) defeated eighth-seeded Finlandia University (25-7), 6-1, in Thursday's first game.  On the other side of the bracket, CCIW-member and sixth-seeded North Central College (33-10) knocked off third-seeded and No. 24 Wisconsin-Eau Claire (26-8), 12-10, on Thursday, with second-seeded, CCIW-member and No. 21 Illinois Wesleyan University (32-9) outlasting seventh-seeded Benedictine University (Ill., 26-13), 7-6, on Friday, May 10. 
 
Carthage will play Finlandia (25-7) on Friday in a second-round game, beginning at 1:15 p.m., with Wisconsin-Eau Claire (26-8) playing Benedictine (Ill., 26-13) at  approximately 3:30 p.m., and Wisconsin-Whitewater (32-5) taking on Luther (29-9) at :about 5:45 p.m..  North Central (Ill., 33-10) is scheduled to play Illinois Wesleyan (32-9) in Friday's fifth game, but that contest will probably be delayed until 9 a.m. on Saturday morning, May 11.
 
Carthage is making its fourth NCAA regional appearance.  The 1998 team went 0-2 at the regional in Eau Claire, Wis.  The 2010 team went 1-2 in Whitewater, Wis., and the 2012 squad went 3-2 and reached the semifinals of the regional in Bloomington, Ill.
 
On  a cool and soggy afternoon, playing a light and steady rain that didn't let up until the fifth inning,  Carthage broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the second when Alyse Mikolas (Jr., Kenosha, Wis./Bradford) blasted a one out, three-run home run to left-center field.  A two-out, bloop single by Elisa Smith in the third got the Norse on the scoreboard at 3-1.  Luther proceeded to load the bases but left them full when Carli Radil fouled out to the catcher. 
 
In the fourth inning, Luther put runners on second and third with no outs.   With one out, Alise Miller doubled to the fence to score both runners and tie the game, 3-3.  Katie Wieland singled, and one out later, Shari Huber hit the first pitch she saw to over the centerfield fence for a two-run homer and a 5-3 lead, as the Norse completed a four-run inning.
 
Carthage's Amy Slattery (Sr., Tinley Park, Ill.,/New Lenox-Providence Catholic) led off the fifth inning with a solo homer to right-center field, to shave the Luther lead to 5-4, but Alise Miller answered with a solo shot to open the sixth, giving the Norse a 6-4 edge that held up.  Luther pitcher Becca Girvan (19-5) allowed four runs on four hits, two walks and five strikeouts.  Krystina Leazer (Sr., Des Plaines, Ill., Elk Grove, 21-5) took the loss and surrendered an uncharacteristic six runs on eight hits and a walk. 
 
"Luther started to time Krystina Leazer in the middle innings," said Carthage coach Amy Gillmore.  "It seemed like anytime we got any momentum they came back to steal the momentum.  We got the home run from Amy Slattery to get close in the fifth inning, but they came right back with a home run to take a two-run lead.  I thought about taking Krystina out, but she's the one that got us here, and she's the one I'm going with.  We just didn't score enough runs.  We were hitting but not enough.  I'd like to blame this on the weather, but that wasn't a factor.  We're capable of making a run out of the loser's bracket—we've done that before.  We'll just have to do it the hard way.  We're in the tough side of this regional bracket, and we didn't get much of a break in the seeding, considering we won the conference championship.  I guess that doesn't matter, since you have to beat everyone eventually to win one of these."