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Contact: Tyler Friel, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, 630-637-5302

Game one box score
Game two box score

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (May 6, 2016) – Entering the day with two chances at an automatic qualifying bid, the North Central College softball team was unable to secure a victory over Wheaton College, falling in game one 9-3 before losing 10-0 in the winner-take-all game two Friday afternoon.

In the first game, both teams were able to scratch one run across in the first inning as Jenna Trojniar singled to center to score Andrea Starr. Wheaton would take a two run lead in the second and extended it by one in the third. The Thunder doubled their score in the fourth, putting up four runs on four hits and a Cardinal error. North Central got one back in the bottom half of the inning, as Samantha Anderson singled up the middle to score Rachele Belletini. Wheaton scored one more in the sixth to take a convincing 9-2 lead and the deficit would prove too much for the Cardinals to overcome. North Central scored one more in their last at-bats but would fall 9-3.

Due to the double-elimination format, the Cardinals looked to extend their season in game two while the Thunder looked to avenge their Thursday loss to North Central.

The Thunder and Cardinals traded zeros for four innings, with North Central tallying two hits while Starr did not allow a Thunder hit. Unfortunately, the Wheaton bats exploded in the fifth, scoring seven runs on seven hits. The Thunder capped off their win with a three run homer in the sixth, run-ruling the Cardinals.

Starr would be dealt the losses for both games, giving her a final season record of 13-13. Every player for North Central recorded at least one hit on the day while Anderson finished 3-for-7 with a RBI while Trojniar and Amanda Walker finished 2-for-7. Trojniar added the other RBI for the Cardinals on the day.

Despite the outcome of the season, the Cardinals showed a lot of heart and fight throughout the year. Taking down ranked opponents while dealing with an extremely difficult schedule is something the team can be proud of looking back and the Cardinals showed that their work against top teams paid off in the long-run. Running into a strong opponent five times in a season, let alone three times in two days, is never an easy task to accomplish and unfortunately the Cardinals hit that roadblock in the Thunder.