Storm sweep Wartburg, win conference title
INDIANOLA, Iowa - Simpson swept a doubleheader against Wartburg on Saturday afternoon at Simpson Softball Complex, capturing the 2010 Iowa Conference regular season championship and clinching the No. 1 seed in next week's conference tournament.
The Storm (29-8, 14-2 IIAC) got back-to-back, five innings shutouts, taking an 8-0 win in game one before notching an 11-0 win in game two. The championship is the first for Simpson since 2000 and the fifth in program history. The win also gives Simpson hosting privileges for the conference tournament and a first-round bye.
Whitney Oviatt (Carnation, Wash./Cedarcrest) stifled the Wartburg offense, tossing nine scoreless innings while picking up a pair of wins. Oviatt (20-4) fanned 10 batters, leaving her two strikeouts shy of 400 on her career. The senior becomes the first 20-game winner at Simpson since Kelly (Schade) Fry won 37 games during the Storm's NCAA Championship run in 1999.
The Knights (14-20, 4-12) advanced only one runner past second base on the day.
Simpson had no problem generating offense, as Keri Sorensen (Bettendorf, Iowa/Pleasant Valley), Amanda Enochs (Des Moines, Iowa/East) and Veronica Roshek (Urbandale, Iowa/Johnston) all had four hits in the doubleheader. Tieryn Potratz (Fort Dodge, Iowa/Fort Dodge) drove in four runs off two hits.
Kelsie Host (Altoona, Iowa/Southeast Polk) drove in the first run of the day with a single in the top of the first. Kortney Proctor (Wilton, Iowa/Wilton) drove in two more in the inning as the Storm jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Roshek doubled in a run as part of a two-run fourth inning and hit a two-RBI single in the fifth. Simpson totaled three in the fifth inning, reaching the eight-run rule.
Run support came early in game two as well, as pinch-runner Leslie Downing (Swan, Iowa/Pleasantville) scored on a wild pitch and Kelsey Castensen (Harcourt, Iowa/Southeast Webster) hit a run-scoring single as Simpson put two on the board in the first.
Simpson added four runs in the third, as Jessica Barkley (Mitchellville, Iowa/Southeast Polk) laced a two-RBI single and Enochs brought home two more with a double in the next at-bat. Barkley drove in her third run of the game with a sacrifice fly in the fourth, as the Storm tallied five in the frame. Potratz did most of the damage with one swing of the bat, lining a bases-clearing, three-RBI double with the bases loaded.
The Iowa Conference Tournament will take place at Simpson Softball Complex on May 6-8. You can listen to the action live online at www.kedb.fm or follow the live stats at www.simpson.edu/livestats.
