FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mark Albanese, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (May 2, 2009)-- North Central College was unable to secure its second straight College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Softball Tournament title, dropping a pair of games against 12th ranked Illinois Wesleyan University at IWU Field to close out the two-day double elimination tournament. The Cardinals fell 1-0 in 10 innings in the opener before falling 5-3 in game two.

In the opening game, North Central managed just four hits while stranding six runners over the course of the game in the 1-0 defeat.

The Cardinals threatened in the second after Kara Reid and Erin Drennan each singled before two straight strikeouts stranded the pair on second and third. In the third, Mary Caron led off the inning with a base hit, moving to third on a Sammie Bloomfield single as the Cardinals loaded the bases with no outs, before a force out at home and a double play ended the inning with the visitors coming up empty handed. North Central was unable to muster any more hits for the remainder of the game, with the Titans scoring the winning run in the 10th off a Monica Urban single up the middle, scoring Christy Engel who reached on an infield single.

Holly Roadruck suffered the loss, despite allowing just one run and one walk in nine and two-third innings while Engel picked up the win for IWU, tossing the final six innings and striking out five.

In the final game of the tournament, IWU struck first scoring three in the first inning en route to the 5-3 win to claim the CCIW Championship.

Allison Ward drove in the game's first run, doubling to left field and scoring Urban. Later in the inning, a Kris Lee two-run shot to center field bumped the score to 3-0 in favor of the home squad. North Central got on the board in the fourth, scoring a pair to cut the deficit to just one. Drennan led off the inning with a double, later scoring on a wild pitch while Bloomfield scored on an error by the left fielder after getting on base via a bunt single.

In the bottom of the frame, the Titans would extend their lead back to three, getting a pair of runs off singles from Lisa Narotsky and Ward.

In the seventh, North Central plated a run but was unable to come any closer, stranding the game tying runner on base. Alyssa Rabulinski reached on an error, advancing to second off a Pappa single to left field. A two-out base hit from Roadruck scored Rabulinski before a pop up to the second baseman closed out the game.

Roadruck (15-7) once again was hit with the loss, allowing five runs in six innings of work. The junior righthander finished the tournament tossing 32 of the 35.2 innings played. Engel (19-3) earned the win, pitching the first four and allowing just one earned run while Lauren James closed out the final three innings for the save.

With the losses, North Central (27-12) leaves its NCAA Division III Tournament fate in the hands of the selection committee, hoping to secure one of the 17 at-large bids to the 59 team field while the Titans (34-4), punched their ticket by virtue of winning the league's automatic bid. The official field will be announced Monday morning.