Tommie Softball 43-Game Season Notes -- May 12

May 12, 2010

St. Thomas Softball Notes -- Wed. May 12, 2010

--NCAA PLAYOFFS: The 24th-ranked St. Thomas softball team (37-6), riding a 17-game win streak, will start play Thursday in an eight-team NCAA regional tournament in Indianola, Iowa. The 60-team NCAA Division III softball playoff field was announced Monday, and the Tommies, seeded sixth out of eight teams, will play the host school, 14th-ranked Simpson College (31-10, the tourney's third seed, on Thursday at 4 p.m. That winner plays a 6 p.m. Friday winners' bracket game against the Illinois Wesleyan-Fontbonne winner. The UST-Simpson loser plays the IWU-Fontbonne loser in a 2 p.m. elimination game on Friday.

--TOUGH TEST: The double-elimination Simpson regional includes teams from six states. Joining Simpson and UST are No. 15-ranked Central, No. 8-rated Linfield, Chicago, Fontbonne, Illinois Wesleyan and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

--TOURNEY WEBSIITE: Click here to access live stats of all games, the full schedule and other info:

http://www.simpson.edu/storm/2010softball/index.html

--TRADITION: UST won the national championship in 2004 and 2005 and took second in 2006. The Tommies are in the NCAA playoffs for the 13th time in the last 14 years. Their 46 NCAA playoff wins in 17 previous appearances are the seventh most among all Division III teams. UST is tied for fifth in most NCAA softball playoff trips at 18 behind Ithaca (23), Central (22), College of New Jersey (20) and Bridgewater (20).

--POSTSEASON ROLL: In the last seven seasons, St. Thomas has won 12 of 18 postseason tournaments (conference, regional, NCAA finals) and is 45-8 overall in the postseason, includng a 21-0 record in MIAC playoff games. 

--MILESTONES: UST needs three victories to post its seventh consecutive 40-win season. The Tommies have had 11 consecutive 30-win seasons.

--JOHN TSCHIDA: UST head coach John Tschida now has 610 career wins in 10 seasons with the Toms and six with St. Mary's. He's won 85% of his games (610-104) to rank first nationally among all NCAA softball or baseball coaches -- active or retired. He's the only NCAA softball coach to win national titles at two different schools. He led St. Mary's to the 2000 Division III championship, and guided the Tommies to the 2004 and 2005 D-III titles.

--IOWA BATTLES: St. Thomas is 17-4 vs. Iowa Conference teams over the last eight seasons -- with all four losses by one run. The Toms lost 2-1 to Luther in the 2009 regional; and lost 3-2 and 5-4 (eight innings) scores to Central last March in the NFCA Leadoff Classic... Their last meeting with Simpson came in the 2008 regional tourney, a 4-1 win by the Tommies.

--DID YOU KNOW 1?: St. Thomas is the lone Division III program to repeat as NCAA softball champion since 1998.

--DID YOU KNOW 2?: The Tommies graduated eight seniors from a 40-6 team of 2009. They started the season 2-4 in the NFCA Leadoff Classic but are 35-2 since then.

--DID YOU KNOW 3?: UST is 2-4 vs. teams us far in 2010 in the NCAA playoffs, all on April 1 or before. In the Leadoff Classic, UST had a 7-2 loss to Christopher Newport; two one-run losses to Central; wins over Alma and Denison; and later had a 6-3 loss on April 1 at Redlands.

--ALISON WRIGHT: The senior 1B from Pewaukee, Wis., is a two-time All-American and also an Academic All-American (3.93 gpa in Business Management). Her 262 hits in 181 games shattered the conference record of 239 set by ex-Tommie Michelle Wong (200-2005)... Wright has had 87 multi-hit games on her career, and has led her team to a 161-21 record in her era... She had a 34-game hitting streak in 2009, and a 20-game hit streak in 2010... Career: 181 games, .470 BA, 262 hits, 146 runs, 154 RBI, 24 HRs, 52 doubles, three triples, 28 walks, 51 SBs, 368 total bases, .970 field%

--MARTA RADCLIFFE: The senior RHP is a candidate for both All-America and Academic All-America. Radcliffe, who has a 3.76 gpa in Psychology, recently surpassed 500 career strikeouts and has received conference Pitcher of the Week honors five times this season and seven times on her career. She finished MIAC regular-season play with a 14-0 record, one save, an 0.46 ERA and 116 strikeouts in 94 innings. In the Tommies' current 35-2 stretch, she has won 23 of her 24 decisions. Radcliffe improved her career record to 65-12 -– including a 43-2 record against conference opponents. She’s beat every conference team at least once on her career. Despite a nagging 2009 injury, she still was named MIAC Pitcher of the Year, and is expected to be a repeat winner in 2010. She's lowered her season ERA to 1.03... Since April 1, she'is 17-0 with one save and an 0.45 ERA.

--ERICA WILSON: The senior OF missed the 2009 season with an injury but has come back to hit .453 with 63 hits, 40 runs, 13 extra-base hits, 10 walks and 19 steals.

--MISC.: Junior OF Sydney Marquardt has 52 hits and 38 RBI in 39 games and is batting .452... Junior OF Becky Eischens has 24 steals and 34 hits in 39 games... Soph 3B Kayla Boward is batting .341 with 30 hits in 34 games... Soph utility player Rachel Tondryk is batting .337 with 33 hits in 38 games... UST pitchers have ailowed just eight home runs and are holding foes to a .212 batting average while posting a 1.42 ERA... sophomore RHP Christy Gries is 9-2 with a 1.44 ERA... UST has 44 errors in 43 games.

--HOMECOMING: The Tommies have two Iowans on the 25-player roster -- junior starting SS Chandran Duffy of Lansing Kee High, and junior utility player Cassie Smith of New Hampton High.