Wartburg Softball Wins Back-to-Back A-R-C Tournament Titles

5/14/2023 3:18:07 PM

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – The Wartburg College Knights (23-16, 10-6 A-R-C) defeated No. 23-ranked Luther College (32-8, 12-4 A-R-C) by a score of 9-3 in the championship to claim the American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) tournament title. Wartburg will be the conference’s automatic qualifier to the 2023 NCAA Division III Softball Championship. The field is announced tomorrow, Monday, May 15th.
 
It was Wartburg’s fifth conference tournament championship title. In back-to-back years, the Knights earned the number four seed in the conference tournament and came away with three wins to earn the title of tournament champions.
 
The NCAA will announce AQ and at-large qualifiers, along with regional sites selected for the Championship tomorrow, May 15th at Noon. The regional round takes place Friday-Sunday, May 19-21 (regionals that include a team with a no-Sunday play policy will be conducted Thursday-Saturday). Winners of the regionals will advance to the super regional round on Friday and Saturday, May 26-27. This year’s NCAA Division III Championship will take place Thursday-Tuesday, June 1-7 at Taylor Field in Marshall, Texas as East Texas Baptist serves as the host site.
 
Wartburg 9, Luther 3 (Championship Game)
 
1-2-3 4-5-6 7 R H E
Wartburg (No.4) 3-2-0 0-4-0 0 9 9 0
Luther (No. 2) 0-3-0 0-0-0 0 3 8 1
W: Ashley Nelson (12-8)    L: Kendra Cooper (21-4)
 
The Knights were off to a hot start in the top of the first inning with Reegan Deputy scoring on a Sydney Fellows single up the middle. Just one batter later, Sydney Illg put one over the center field fence to put Wartburg up 3-0 after a half inning of play. Deputy continued the scoring rally for the Knights in the second inning as she put a two-run homerun over the center field fence to add to the Knights lead (5-0). The Luther Norse got three runs in the bottom half of the second, but that was all they could muster for the remaining five innings. Wartburg got some insurance runs in the fifth inning on an Illg two-run double and an Ella Link homerun to left center field to score Illg.
 
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