Two More Wins Put Warriors in National Tourney

Neosho, MO -- The Indian Hills Warriors' run through the postseason continued with back-to-back wins in the District K Tournament against Crowder College on Friday. The Warriors took the best-of-three series with 6-3 and 7-3 wins against Crowder in a battle between two region champions.


The district tourney win puts the Warriors in the NJCAA Division I National Tournament May 20-22 in St. George, Utah. It will be the first trip to the national tournament for IHCC since 2005.

Indian Hills got outstanding pitching performances in their three consecutive wins in the Region 11 tournament and that pattern continued against Crowder. Brandi Haight and Kylee Coughlin had strong outings and the IHCC offense backed them with 13 runs and 21 hits in the two games.

IHCC set the tone for the day in the top of the 1st inning of the first game of the tourney. Kris Penick led off with a walk. A single by Kelly Ruepke and a hit batter loaded the bases. Sarah Wilcox delivered a two-run single to give the Warriors the early lead. Wilcox had four hits in the game. Tory Beaver, who was hit by a pitch to set up the Wilcox two-RBI hit, was hit four times in the two games.

The IHCC lead doubled in the 4th when Jordan Grell singled home Wilcox and came all the way around to score on the play when Crowder committed two errors, one in the outfield and the second when they tried to get Grell at 3rd base.

Crowder scored two runs to cut the lead in half in the bottom of the 5th, but missed a chance to make it a big inning when they left the bases loaded.

The Warriors picked up two big insurance runs in the 7th. Lizzy Tucker's squeeze bunt brought home McKenzie Cason and Wilcox picked up her third RBI when she singled to drive in Ruepke.

Crowder scored a run in the 7th, but again left the bases loaded. They stranded eight baserunners in the final three innings.

Haight got her 14th pitching win of the season, allowing six hits and two earned runs with one walk and four strikeouts. Haight's final strikeout came on a called third strike to end the game. She retired 10 hitters in a row in one stretch.

Indian Hills again scored first in the second game, this time as the home team on the scoreboard.

Lizzy Tucker's two-run double off the center field fence chased home Cason and Ruepke, who had led off the 3rd inning with singles. After two outs, number-nine hitter Morgan Powers came up with a huge hit for Indian Hills, a two-out, two-strike single to center that scored two runs and made it 4-0.

Powers had two hits on the day giving her seven in five postseason games.

Crowder scored once against Coughlin in the 5th and picked up a couple more runs in the 7th, but saw their season end when the IHCC freshman pitcher got a ground ball to third base to end the contest.

Indian Hills added to their lead with single runs in their final three at-bats after their four-run 3rd.

Tucker drove in a run with a groundout in the 4th; Sydney Hallbauer's single brought home Ryan Jehle in the 5th; and Jehle had an RBI-single to score Tucker in the 6th.
Ruepke, Tucker and Jehle each had two hits in the second game for IHCC. Ruepke also had two hits in the opener and Grell also had two in game one to go along with Wilcox's four-hit game.

In game two, Coughlin gave up 11 hits, but only three runs. She walked only one batter.

For the second straight game, Crowder, the Region 16 champions, had lots of opportunities, but couldn't come up with the big hit. They left nine runners on in the second game to match their LOB total in the opener.

Indian Hills will take a 33-22 record into the national tourney. The pairings for the 16-team affair will be released at the start of next week.