(By Rio Grande Sports Information)
MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The University of Rio Grande softball team got its new single-season school record for wins.
But the RedStorm failed to collect the thing that they wanted most - a trip to the NAIA World Series.
Central Methodist University's Haley Kinnison tossed a four-hit shutout as the Eagles defeated Rio Grande, 4-0, in the loser's bracket final of the NAIA National Championship Opening Round's Auburn-Montgomery Bracket, Tuesday night, at a rainy AUM Softball Complex.
The RedStorm, who began the day with a 7-4 win over Lourdes (Ohio) University to remain alive in the four-team, double-elimination bracket, finished their season at 41-9, surpassing the previous school record of 40 wins in a season set by the 2004 team.
Central Methodist, ranked 19th in the latest NAIA coaches' poll and the tourney's No. 2 seed, improved to 43-17 with the victory and earned a rematch with No. 2 ranked and top-seeded Auburn-Montgomery in Wednesday's title game at 2 p.m. EDT.
The Eagles, who lost to the two-time defending national champions, 3-1, earlier in the day in the winner's bracket final, would have to defeat the Warhawks twice to earn a trip to next week's NAIA World Series in Sioux City, Iowa.
Rio Grande, ranked 22nd nationally and seeded third in the bracket, managed just four hits - singles by freshman Kelsey Conkey (Minford, OH), senior Ariel Roder (Parma Heights, OH) and sophomore Gabby Gregg (Ashville, OH) in the third, fourth and sixth innings, respectively, and a seventh inning triple by senior Kim Rollins (Cincinnati, OH) - against Kinnison, who did not walk a batter and struck out four en route to her 16th win in 22 decisions.
CMU got what proved to be the only run it would need in the second inning against Rio junior starter Jenna Jones (Lancaster, OH) when Hannah Blackmon led off with a walk and scored all the way from first on a one-out double to left by Alyssa Lilly.
The Eagles tacked on two more runs against Jones in the third without the benefit of a hit, loading the bases on a hit batsman, an error and a walk. After getting a forceout on the lead runner at home, consecutive wild pitches plated a pair of runs and pushed the lead to 3-0.
Jones, who threw 164 pitches in a loss to CMU on Monday, was lifted after three innings in favor of sophomore Mallory Powell (Flatwoods, KY).
Powell blanked the Eagles on two hits over the next three innings before a leadoff walk to Skyler Hime in the seventh, a stolen base and run-scoring single by Jessie Wilmes set the final score.
Earlier in the day, Rio Grande stayed in the title hunt by holding off Lourdes in an elimination contest.
Conkey had a two-out, two-run double in the second inning, while freshman Carly Skeese (Newark, OH) had a third inning sacrifice fly and Gregg added a run-scoring double in the sixth to give the RedStorm a 4-0 lead.
The fourth-seeded Gray Wolves (18-30) scored three times in the home sixth thanks to an RBI single by Olivia Stanton and a two-run throwing error, but the RedStorm rebounded to get all three runs back in the top of the seventh as a result of a two-run single by junior Cheyenne Hamaker (Hilliard, OH) and an RBI hit by junior Alex Kuhn (Oak Hill, OH) to make it 7-3.
Lourdes pulled to within 7-4 in the bottom of the seventh thanks to a walk and three hits - including a two-out RBI single by Kayla Encalado - but Conkey retired Hillary West on a grounder to second to seal the win.
Hamaker and junior Brittany Walk (Unionville Center, OH) had two hits each to lead Rio offensively, while Conkey scattered 10 hits and allowed just two earned runs for her 19th win of the year.
Stanton, Megan Mosiniak and and Erica Marvaso all had two hits each in a losing cause for Lourdes, while Marissa Kostick started and took the loss for the Gray Wolves.
The season-ending loss to Central Methodist marked the final game in a Rio uniform for Roder, Rollins, senior Mattie Lanham (Rio Grande, OH), junior Heather Ward (Gallipolis, OH) and sophomore Laci Stanforth (Frankfort, OH).