CONWAY, Ark.
Sarah Randermann maintained her stellar stretch, striking out 14 (six looking) in her 17th complete-game victory of her senior season as No. 2 seed William Woods University (29-15) soared past No. 7 seed Crowley's Ridge College (18-25) 4-0 in Game 2 of the American Midwest Conference Tournament Tuesday at City of Colleges Park.
On top of recording ⅔ of her made outs via punch outs, Randermann (13-8) gave up just one hit in her shutout.
"It was a good start to the tournament," William Woods softball coach
Tracy Gastineau said. "Sarah pitched a great game, and our offense did what we needed to do to win."
The Owls registered four more hits than the Pioneers, with five, and they didn't make a single miscue in the field, while CRC made a single error.
Despite not having that many hits, William Woods got half its runs from
Sammy Lohnes's lone hit, a two-run big fly that scored
Brooklynn Spillman and put it at 2-0 Owls in the bottom of the second.
An inning later, The Woods chalked on two more runs to its lead, finalizing the game's scoring in just the third inning when CRC's pivotal error by its right fielder plated
Lexi Lewis and
Kaitlyn Plassmeyer and put hitter
Jessica Keilholz on first base.
Outside of a handful of free passes and a base hit, it was smooth sailing for Randermann and the Owls' fielders over the contest's final four innings. In that same time, on the offensive side for William Woods, Fulton's own
Rylee Hagens belted a double to center field and a triple to right field to round out the Owls' trio of extra-base hits in the matchup.
Demons toward the Pioneers on the basepaths, WWU snatched four bases, with Lewis,
Mariah Prince, Spillman and Plassmeyer taking a bag each.
Naturally, come AMC Tournament time, the opponents get tougher the further a team goes, and for William Woods, that is the case, taking on (RV), No. 3 seed Columbia College (27-12) in Game 8 at noon Wednesday. The Owls and Cougars split the AMC regular season series on April 15 in Fulton.
