WHITEWATER, WIS.—Milestones bestowed the Carthage College softball team in their NCAA Division III Regional Championship Game against #23 UW-Whitewater at Van Steenderen Field in Whitewater, Wisconsin on Sunday.
Stefanie Guercio rang up her single-season program record 226
th strikeout in the third inning, while her offense supported her with four home runs en route to a 9-0 (5 Innings) blasting of UW-Whitewater.
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The Lady Reds will advance to their first ever NCAA Division III Softball Tournament Super Regional against Illinois Wesleyan University on Friday, May 17 – Saturday, May 18 in a best-of-three format. The site and times will be determined soon.
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Carthage, who entered the weekend with 11 home runs through 40 games in 2019, capped the 2019 UW-Whitewater Regional Tournament with seven home runs. Guercio now has a program-record 229 strikeouts over 158.1 innings pitched, while it took the previous record-holder Krystina Leazer (2013) 209.0 innings pitched to reach 225. She (Guercio) allowed three hits, walked no batters and struckout five over five innings of work and picked up her ninth shutout of the 2019 season, which ties Leazer's (2011) single-season record.
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Four-of-Carthage's eight hits occurred via the long ball courtesy of
Emmily Zinkiewicz (2),
Donna Stevens and
Brooke Sefcik.
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Carthage improves to 29-14 on the season while UW-Whitewater ends their campaign with a 28-14 overall mark.
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Lady Reds 9, UW-Whitewater 0 (5 Innings)
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Donna Stevens redeemed herself from a warning-track shot in yesterday's game against the Warhawks with a first-inning solo home run that gave Carthage a 1-0 lead. The next monumental moment occurred in the third inning, where Guercio notched her program-record 226
th strikeout.
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The fifth inning resulted in eight runs for the Lady Reds, which began and ended with an
Emmily Zinkiewicz home run that iced the game 9-0 via the eight-run mercy rule. Sandwiched in there was
Ellie Bernero's bases-loaded RBI-groundout,
Kelsey Domagala's two-run double and
Brooke Sefcik's two-run home run.
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Julia Camarado, Bella Matthias and Dani Biesiada combined to surrender nine runs on eight hits while striking out just one batter.
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Guercio was named the UW-Whitewater Regional Tournament MVP. Joining Guercio on the UW-Whitewater Regional All-Tournament Team is Sefcik, Domagala and Stevens.
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