COLUMBIA, Mo. – The William Woods University softball team was swept by No. 23 Columbia College in the 2019 American Midwest Conference Championships series. Despite, Columbia being tabbed the 2019 Tournament Champion, the Owls still receive the conference's second automatic bid to the NAIA World Series due to Columbia already receiving one by being the regular season champions.
Columbia short-gamed the Owls 12-1 in game one and completed the sweep with an 8-4 game two win.
The Owls sit 23-25 on the season heading into the NAIA National Championship Opening Round. The qualifiers and pairings will be announced on Tuesday, May 7, at 4 p.m. on the
NAIA Facebook page.
The Opening Rounds will take place on May 13-15. Each of the 10 sites will have four teams and will play double elimination.
Game One
The Owls were the away team on the board in game one.
In the top of the first,
Anna Counts led off the game by reaching on an error. A passed ball moved her to second, and
Ari Arnold's sacrifice bunt put her on third. Following the second out being recorded,
Alli Massey hit the Owls' only hit of the game to score Counts and give the Owls a 1-0 early lead.
A two-run home run in the bottom of the inning game CC a 2-1 lead. They added 10 more runs in the third inning to take the 12-1 lead.
The Owls were unable to get a runner on in the next two innings, ending the game in the fifth.
Brittany Roady (14-8) pitched the first 2.2 innings and was credited with the loss.
Alexis Hassler finished the game and faced 10 batters.
Game Two
The Owls were home team on the board in game two.
Columbia took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning with a two RBI single.
The Owls countered with two runs of their own in the bottom of the inning to tie up the game. Counts led off the inning with a single and advanced to second on Arnold's ground out.
Emma Walker then doubled to deep right-center to score Counts. The Owls' second run scored was on Massey's RBI.
In the top of the second, CC added three more runs.
The Owls looked to close the 5-2 gap in the bottom of the third. They put up two runs to bring the game to 5-4 with an Arnold RBI double to deep right-center field and a Walker RBI triple to deep right-center field.
Columbia added one in the fourth on their third home run of the day. In the top of the seventh, Columbia added two more runs to take an 8-4 lead.
The Owls were unable to put a runner in scoring position in the bottom of the inning, ending the game and series.
Walker, Counts and Arnold each recorded two hits. Walker went 2-for-4 with a double, a triple, two RBI and one run scored. Arnold had a double, an RBI and one run scored, and Counts scored two runs.
Madison Ausfahl (7-14) pitched the complete game and struck out two.
