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(KWMN)- Winona State Softball saw their season come to an end this morning as they just missed out on the D-II NCAA tournament, while St. Mary’s softball capped off their second straight regular season title in the MIAC and await the conference tournament.
Winona State spent the weekend in Sioux Falls, SD at the NSIC tournament. They were able to get wins over Concordia St. Paul and Minnesota State-Mankato to get into the NSIC tournament championship game. There, they met the top seed in Augustana University. They fell 12-1 in five innings, unable to find the barrel many times against Auggies top pitcher in Grace Glanzer, who also earned the pitcher of the year award in the NSIC. The Warriors mustered up just one run off five hits.
With the conference tournament run, the Warriors gave themselves an outside chance to make the NCAA tournament. Earlier this morning, the NCAA released the bracket for the D-II tournament, where WSU was left on the outside looking in, effectively ending their season.
As for St. Mary’s, their postseason push is just getting underway. With a two-game sweep of Hamline in their final weekend of the regular season, the St. Mary’s Cardinals completed their first undefeated conference season since 1998, while winning their second straight regular season MIAC title. They’ll play their first conference tournament game on Saturday, entering the competition with 27 straight victories. The Cardinals will host the semifinal and final of the conference tournament after earning the #1 seed. They’ll play the winner of Bethel and Macalester on Saturday afternoon.
The Cardinals will more likely than not clinch a second straight berth into the NCAA Tournament that will begin after all conference tournaments finish up across D-III. The Cards are poised to compete for their first D-III World Series title since 2000.
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