NCAC Championship Central

This Week's Outlook: The College of Wooster softball team (17-21, 8-8 NCAC) earned the No. 4 seed in the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament and will face host and No. 1 seed DePauw University (31-7, 15-1 NCAC) in game two of the first round at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. The double-elimination tournament will be played in Greencastle, Ind.
Game one will feature No. 2 seed Hiram College (21-13, 13-3 NCAC) and No. 3 seed Denison University (19-20, 8-8 NCAC) at 10 a.m. Game three will feature the two winners at approximately 2 p.m., while the opening round losers will play in game 4 at 4:30 p.m. On Sunday, game 5 will feature the game 3 loser and the game 4 winner at 10 a.m. Game 6 will be the matchup between the game 3 winner and game 5 winner at approximately 12:30 p.m., and game 7 will take place if necessary 30 minutes after the conclusion of game six.

Media Coverage: Fans can follow the action through the live stream and live stats webpages provided by DePauw University. Fans can also follow the softball team's Twitter account @COWSoftball for updates throughout the championship.

Tickets:

(one-day admission)
Adults -- $7
Children (18 and under) -- $3
NCAC Student (with NCAC ID) -- Free

NCAC Tournament History: This will be Wooster's first trip back to the NCAC Tournament since the conference last held the four-team tournament back in 2019. In that one, the second-seeded Scots didn't even see the Tigers. Wooster fell twice to No. 3 seed Denison and collected a win against No. 4 seed Kenyon College.
Last year, DePauw defeated Hiram in two games in a best-out-of-three shortened version of the championship. It was DePauw's second-consecutive and sixth overall NCAC softball championship title. Overall, DePauw and Denison lead with six tournament titles, and DePauw has won six of the last seven. This will be Wooster's seventh appearance in the tournament, and they are still seeking its first tournament title.

How We Got Here: Wooster finished 17-21 with an 8-8 NCAC record. They left their spring break trip above .500 (7-5) but came back home to go 1-5 against a tough non-conference schedule. They endured getting swept by DePauw and Hiram but split with Denison. They also earned much-needed sweeps against Kenyon and Allegheny. The Scots closed the season playing six games last week, having gone 2-4 in that span.

First-Years Anchoring Bottom of Lineup: First-year Destany Blake has become an unexpected on-base machine for the Scots. She is leading the team with a .386 average (17-of-44) and .481 on-base percentage in NCAC play. Blake hit safely in 11 of the 16 games, added nine runs scored and tallied five RBI.
First-year Sarah Lodge has also performed well in extended playing time as of late. In a smaller sample size, Lodge is batting .455 (5-of-11) in NCAC games and .346 (9-of-26) overall.

One Last Time Around: The seniors will ultimately make or break the team's chances in tournament play. Molly Likins leads the team with a .347 average, six home runs and 30 RBI, and the team will need her timely hitting out of the 3-spot. Brooke Swain will have to continue getting on from the leadoff spot and add to her team-high 29 runs scored. She's also hitting at a .333 clip with 20 stolen bases. Katie Agatucci will look to add to her 24 RBI on the year, which is third most on the team, and then Gabby Lakes and Daphne Pate will need to come through when called upon.

Pitching Roundabout: Junior Addie Tagg has emerged as the team's No. 1 pitcher this year with a team-best six wins and 4.00 ERA. The Scots will look for another quality start from her, which she delivered in the first meeting against the Tigers, going six innings and allowing three runs. Sophomore Rachael Dudziak has logged the most innings (90.1), supporting a 5-8 record and 4.57 ERA. Earlier this year, she went 5.2 innings against the Tigers, allowing four earned runs. However, neither Tagg or Dudziak got any run support as Wooster logged just one run across the two games in Greencastle. Pate and first-year Abby Eberly give the Scots options on the mound. Collectively, the foursome owns a team ERA of 5.04.

Scouting DePauw: DePauw enters ranked sixth in the country after going 15-0 in the month of April. They are coming off a split with Hiram to conclude the season, which snapped an 18-game winning streak. Senior Grace Smith is their top hitter, with a .431 average, six home runs and 26 RBI. On the mound, senior Cami Henry has shown once again to be the best pitcher in the conference with a 23-5 record and 1.00 ERA.

Of Note: Wooster won its first matchup against DePauw back in 2012 but have since dropped 19 straight contests against the Tigers … Likins's 17 career home runs is currently a program-best, while her 83 RBI is one shy of tying the record and her 85 runs scored is tied for third … Swain is at a program-best 53 steals in a career and counting … Coach Victoria Rumph is three wins away from 100 career wins.