Jenna Kendall

Chelsea Copley

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio – In their first postseason appearance since 2012, The College of Wooster softball team was eliminated from the 2017 North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament with an 11-1 loss to Denison University on Sunday afternoon at Betty Doughman Dillahunt Field on the campus of Wittenberg University.

The Fighting Scots (20-23, 10-6 NCAC) posted their best tournament outing since 2005 and stood one out away from making the program's first championship game appearance during Saturday's game against DePauw University.

The Big Red (30-15, 10-6 NCAC), who lost their tournament opener to DePauw on Saturday, defeated Wittenberg in the tournament's first elimination game on Saturday to advance to the finals of the losers' bracket, as they poured on four runs in the top of the first inning against Wooster and did not look back.

After Denison tacked on six more runs in the third as part of an error-less game for both squads, Wooster first-year Marina Roski knocked out her second home run of the season to log the Scots' lone run of the day in the bottom of the fourth.

Representing the All-Tournament team for the Scots were sophomore Chelsea Copley and senior Jenna Kendall. Copley logged the game-winning RBI in Wooster's 4-0 opening win against 22nd-ranked Wittenberg while Kendall finished her standout career with a 3-for-9 performance from the plate on the weekend.

Four seniors' collegiate softball careers concluded on Sunday as part of a banner season for the program at large. This season witnessed the highest regular season (20) and conference win total  (10) for Wooster since 2012. In addition, six players appeared in a program-record 43 games this season, while eight eclipsed the prior school record of 40.

Career-wise, senior Linea Brouse etched her name atop the program's record books for most games played with 152, starting all but one while closing her career in the top three in doubles (29) and top 10 in hits (123).

Kendall, who led the team with 25 RBI on the year, capped her tenure with 74 RBI, the third-most in program history, while laying claim to sixth-place on the program's all-time hits list (126). In addition to being tied for third all-time with eight home runs, the local standout ended her four years clad in plaid with 17 wins, five shutouts and 129 strikeouts – all top 10 totals in program history. Meanwhile, classmate Stephenie Little, who last year became the program's first infielder to garner first-team all-conference honors, moved into fourth all-time in both career hits (132) and RBI (73).

With Sunday's conclusion, junior Maddy Chase added on to her record-setting single-season hit record with a 3-for-10 performance at the conference tournament to end the year with 61, eight more than the prior record set by alumna Kelley Johnson in 2010. Additionally, the junior totaled 33 runs scored on the year – another single-season record – while finishing with 11 wins from the circle, one shy of her career-best set in 2016.

Chase ended 2017 with a .436 batting average – the third highest single-season average by a Scot – along with a top-five on-base percentage (.477). Both Chase and Roski, who batted a program-record 142 times this year, recorded a co-team-high 10 doubles.

Both Kendall and Copley totaled four home runs on the year, with Copley standing tied for seventh all-time in program history with six.