No. 15 DePauw extends NCAA III Central Regional Tournament with 4-0 win over No. 4 Softball Sunday afternoon

By Tim Glon

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GREENCASTLE, Ind. -- Second-seeded and No. 15-ranked DePauw (Ind.) extended the NCAA III Central Regional with a 4-0 victory over top-seeded and No. 4-ranked Ohio Northern in Game 12 of the Tournament Sunday afternoon at DePauw Softball Field.

The Polar Bears (38-4) and Tigers (31-8) will square off again on Sunday at 2 pm, with the winner of that contest claiming the Regional title and advancing to the NCAA Tournament Championships May 15-19 at Montclair, N.J.

A second game is necessary as both teams now have one loss in regional tournament play.

Northern downed DePauw 5-3 in the semifinals on Saturday afternoon, giving the hosts their only loss of the tournament.

Megan Soultz (29-8) threw her second 1-hit shutout of the tournament to earn the win for DePauw.

Maggie Molnar was solid in relief on the mound for the Polar Bears, allowing just one earned runs in 3.1 innings of work.

Liz Decima collected Northern's only base hit with a clean single through the left side in the top if the first,

DePauw got on the board first when Jen Kosinski drilled a two-out single to right field to score Emma Minx, who started the rally with a two-out single to left.

Another 2-out single plated two runs in the top of the fourth for DePauw and gave the Tigers a 3-0 lead.

With runners on second and third and two out, Brianne Weeks beat out an infield single to third to score Kelly Schwerzler from third. Carolyn Bartlett then raced home for another run when ONU's defense lapsed and did not call timeout after the bang-bang play at first base.

A third 2-out, run-scoring base hit made it 4-0 in the top of the seventh. Minx led off the inning with a single up the middle, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt, went to third on a ground ball to the right side and scored on a single to right by Ashlee Anton.

Cortney cash (27-2) took the loss, allowing three runs in 3.2 innings of work.

The shutout was the first in 81 games, dating to the 2008 season opener, for Ohio Northern.