ADA – The East Central University softball team had an historic season come to an end at the 2015 NCAA DII Central Regional Finals, with a 1-4 loss to No. 9 Augustana College.
The Tigers (34-16) saw their lone run come from junior
Jordynn VanPelt, who hit her 15
th home run of the season in the seventh inning. Senior
Samantha McGraw finished her strong tournament with two hits for the day.
Junior
Marissa Shaffer threw a complete game for ECU, allowing five hits and four runs, while striking out two. She finished the season with a 15-8 record in the circle.
Both teams had chances to score early in the game, with runners on base, however through the first three innings no runners crossed the plate.
The Vikings (53-9) were the first to break the streak and scored two unearned runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 0-2 lead.
Augustana added two more runs in the bottom of the fifth to push out to a 0-4 advantage.
The Tigers finally got on the scoreboard in the top of the seventh, when VanPelt hit her solo home run to left field.
ECU ended its historic season after earning the school's first two NCAA postseason wins for any sport and being one of four teams to send representatives to the NCAA post season this year.