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Krieg Named To Academic All-District Team
Klein And Baumert Are GPAC Player And Pitcher Of The Year
Morningside Reigns At GPAC Tourney
Baumert Repeats As GPAC Pitcher Of The Week
Baumert Is GPAC Pitcher Of The Week
Mustangs Sweep Weekly Softball Awards
All-State Pitcher Kayla Smith To Join Mustangs
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Kendra Klein |
Morningside’s softball season came to an end when the Mustangs lost 8-5 in Friday’s championship game of the NAIA Region III Tournament in Sioux City.
The Mustangs, who closed the books with a 40-12 record, became the final victim of Dana’s “Cinderella” run through the tournament. The Vikings, the last team in as the No. 8 seed, will go on to the NAIA National Tournament after they went 4-0 to win the NAIA Region III title.
Dana pitcher Cassie Lager, named the tournament MVP, was the winning pitcher in all four of the Vikings’ victories and she didn’t allow her first run of the tournament until the Mustangs used singles by Stephanie Loeschen and Kylie Helmink to plate a run in the fifth inning of the title game.
The Mustangs eventually chased Lager in the bottom of the sixth inning when they rallied from a 5-1 deficit. Jerra Steffen doubled to left field to open the inning and scored one batter later on a RBI single by Alisha Krieg. The last batter Lager faced was Kendra Klein, who deposited a pitch over the fence for a two-run home run that brought the Mustangs within 5-4.
A three-run Dana seventh inning that featured RBI doubles by Maggie Downs and Barrow gave the Vikings the extra cushion they needed.
Singles by Megan Tuttle and Steffen helped the Mustangs get a run back in the seventh before Brianne Nutty came on in relief with two runners on base and retired the only two batters she faced to end the game. Nutty, who recorded her first save of the season, also blasted a two-run home run in the top of the fourth inning to open the scoring.
Lager allowed four runs on five hits with two walks and five strikeouts over the first five innings to get the win.
Kelly Baumert allowed nine hits in defeat. She walked one and struck out four. Four of the Vikings’ eight runs were unearned.
Steffen had two of the Mustangs’ seven hits with a double and single.
Box Score
 Alisha Krieg, a senior outfielder from Kingsley, Iowa, has been named to the 2008 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VII College Division Softball Second-Team.
Krieg has a 3.84 cumulative grade point average and is majoring in psychology counseling.
She is the Mustangs’ leading hitter this season with a .429 batting average to go along with four doubles, one triple, a team-high nine home runs, 40 RBIs, 33 runs scored, and six stolen bases. She has struck out only eight times in 154 at-bats.
Student-athletes must be of at least sophomore status and have a minimum GPA of 3.20 in order to be eligible for ESPN The Magazine All-Academic honors.
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Kendra Klein |
Kelly Baumert |
Kendra Klein, a junior third baseman from Remsen, Iowa, has been named the Hauff Mid-America Sports/Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Player of the Year and Kelly Baumert, a sophomore pitcher from Omaha, Neb., has been named the Hauff Mid-America Sports/GPAC Co-Pitcher of the Year to headline the Mustangs’ selections on the 2008 All-GPAC Softball Team as selected by the leagues’ head coaches.
They are joined on the All-GPAC first-team by Alisha Krieg, a senior outfielder from Kingsley, Iowa.
Baumert, Klein, and Krieg are all repeat first-team selections from last year. Baumert, who shared this season’s GPAC Pitcher of the Year award with Northwestern College’s Lexy Determan, was also the 2007 GPAC Pitcher of the Year. This year’s GPAC Co-Pitchers of the Year could oppose each other on Wednesday when Morningside and Northwestern meet in the first round of the NAIA Region III Tournament in Sioux City.
Baumert has a 21-4 record with a 1.64 earned run average and one save and has limited the opposition to a .211 batting average. Baumert has allowed only 128 hits and has walked 47 batters in 162 innings pitched. She has blown the ball past opposing hitters for 166 strikeouts to average over a strikeout per inning. Baumert has completed all 24 of her starts, including seven shutouts.
Klein is the top run producer in the Mustangs’ lineup with 40 runs scored and a team-high 51 RBIs for the third highest single-season RBI total in Morningside history. She has collected 56 hits in 141 at-bats for a .397 batting average with 11 doubles, two triples, and seven home runs. Klein leads the Mustangs with a .485 on-base percentage and is the team’s co-leader with 20 base on balls.
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Alisha Krieg |
Megan Tuttle |
Krieg is the Mustangs’ leading hitter with 64 hits in 143 at-bats for a .448 batting average with four doubles, one triple, and a team-high eight home runs. She has 38 RBIs and has struck out only seven times all season. Krieg will enter the NAIA Region III Tournament on a hitting tear after hitting safely in 15 of the Mustangs’ last 16 games. She has hit .528 with six home runs and 20 RBIs over the last 16 contests.
In addition to their three first-team selections, the Mustangs placed Megan Tuttle, a senior outfielder from Sioux City, on the All-GPAC second-team. Tuttle is batting .319 with 13 doubles, one triple, four home runs, 30 RBIs, and 42 runs scored. She leads the Mustangs with her 42 runs and 13 doubles and is also the Mustangs’ leader with 15 stolen bases.
The Mustangs’ Whitney McElrath, a senior pitcher from Moville, Iowa, was named to the All-GPAC honorable mention list. McElrath has a 16-6 record with a 2.18 earned run average and four shutouts. She has allowed 144 hits and walked only 22 batters in 154 innings pitched. McElrath has struck out 117 batters and completed 21 of her 23 starts. Offensively she is batting .270 with nine doubles, one triple, four home runs, and 30 RBIs.
Morningside will enter this week’s NAIA Region III Tournament fresh off of winning last week’s GPAC Tournament in Hastings, Neb. The Mustangs will take a 37-10 record into the tournament.
Click here for the complete 2008 All-GPAC Softball Team.
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Amanda Martines |
Whitney McElrath |
Morningside is the 2008 GPAC Softball Tournament champion after it drubbed Doane College 11-3 in five innings in Saturday morning’s championship game in Hastings, Neb.
The victory earned the Mustangs, 37-10, an automatic berth in next week’s NAIA Region III Tournament.
The Mustangs had seven hits and capitalized on seven Tiger errors to turn the GPAC title game into a rout.
Four Tiger errors paved the way to a four-run Morningside first inning. Doane closed within 4-3 on a three-run home run by Steph Mosley in the top of the third inning, but the Mustangs answered with a three-run home run by Amanda Martines in the bottom of the inning and were never threatened again.
Martines was the big hitter in the Mustangs’ lineup with a home run, double, and six RBIs. She had a two-run double for the big hit in a four-run fifth inning when the Mustangs finished off the Tigers by the eight-run rule.
Whitney McElrath provided the big hit in the Mustangs’ four-run first inning when she cleared the bases with a three-run double.
McElrath finished with a double and single and Alisha Kreig also had two hits with a pair of singles.
Winning pitcher Kelly Baumert scattered seven hits in the five-inning contest. She struck out two and didn’t walk a batter.
Box Score
Kelly Baumert, a sophomore pitcher from Omaha, Neb., has been named the Hauff Mid-America Sports/Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Softball Pitcher of the Week for the second week in a row.
Baumert had a 3-0 record with a 1.00 earned run average last week to extend her winning streak to 12 consecutive decisions. She had 23 strikeouts in 21 innings last week.
She has a 15-1 record with a 1.27 ERA for the season.
 Kelly Baumert, a sophomore pitcher from Omaha, Neb., has been named the Hauff Mid-America Sports/Great Plains Athletic Conference Softball Pitcher of the Week.
Baumert had a 4-0 record with a 0.52 earned run average last week in wins against Dana College, Dakota Wesleyan University, Dakota State University, and Bellevue University. She allowed only 15 hits and struck out 28 batters in 27 innings.
She pitched a four-hit shutout with four walks and nine strikeouts in a 7-0 win against Dakota Wesleyan and pitched a three-hit shutout with one walk and six strikeouts in a 2-0 triumph against Bellevue.
Baumert has allowed only one unearned run over her last three starts and has allowed two earned runs or less in each of her last seven starts.
She has won each of her last nine decisions to improve her season’s record to 11-1. Baumert has a 1.38 earned run average and has struck out 83 batters and allowed only 49 hits in 71 innings this season.
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Steph Loeschen |
Whitney McElrath |
Steph Loeschen, a senior first baseman from Ocheyedan, Iowa; and Whitney McElrath, a senior pitcher from Moville, Iowa; have been named the NAIA Region III and Hauff Mid-America Sports/Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Softball Player and Pitcher of the Week.
Loeschen collected 14 hits in 29 at-bats for a .483 batting average to lead the Mustangs to a 7-2 record last week at the Tucson Invitational. She slugged four doubles and a home run on her way to 13 RBIs. Loeschen’s home run was a grand slam to tie the score in the seventh inning of the Mustangs’ 10-8 triumph in eight innings against the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
McElrath had a 3-1 pitching record with a 2.03 earned run average. She struck out 28 batters in 31 innings. Her best performance came in a 9-0 win against Cardinal Stritch University when she twirled a one-hit shutout with 14 strikeouts.
Kayla Smith, a senior softball pitcher at Akron-Westfield High School, will enroll at Morningside College next fall and compete for the Mustangs announced Morningside head softball coach Jessica Jones-Sitzmann.
Smith has earned all-state honors each of the past two summers while posting a 66-6 record for a .917 winning percentage over the 2006 and 2007 campaigns. She helped lead the Westerners to Iowa’s Class 1A state championship in 2006 and a runner-up finish at last year’s Class 2A state tourney.
Last summer Smith earned second-team Class 2A all-state honors when she fashioned a 30-3 record with a 0.93 earned run average and allowed only 105 hits in 226.1 innings pitched. She walked only 48 batters and blew the ball past the opposition for 230 strikeouts. Opponents batted only .158 against her. Sixteen of her wins came by shutout.
Aside from her pitching exploits, Smith was also a standout hitter for the Westerners and batted .415 with 10 doubles, one home run, and a team-high 48 runs batted in.
She earned all-tournament honors at last year’s 2A state tourney. She struck out 11 batters and went two-for-five with a double and three RBIs in Akron-Westfield’s opening round 15-5 triumph against Carroll Kuemper Catholic. In the semifinals she pitched a two-hit shutout with five strikeouts in a 1-0 win against North Polk.
Smith earned first-team Class 1A all-state laurels as a sophomore when she dominated opposing hitters by limiting them to only 85 hits in 225.2 innings and a .114 batting average. Smith had a 36-3 record with a 0.68 earned run average and 21 shutouts. She had 43 walks and a whopping 306 strikeouts.
Offensively she batted .481 with 10 doubles, two triples, one home run, and a team-high 49 RBIs.
Smith made the all-tournament team at the 2006 Class 1A state tourney, where she figured prominently in all three of the Westerners’ triumphs. She went two-for-three with a double and three RBIs in an opening round 11-4 win against North Mahaska. Smith pitched one of the best games of her career in the semifinals with a one-hit shutout with nine strikeouts in a 4-0 win against Madrid. She retired Madrid’s first 18 batters of the game before her no-hit bid was broken up in the seventh inning. Smith pitched a six-hitter and did not allow an earned run when Akron-Westfield defeated Newell-Fonda 3-1 in the 1A championship game.
Smith will join a Morningside softball team that posted a 43-13 record during the 2007 season to set school records for victories in a season and winning percentage at .768. Morningside won the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) championship with a 19-5 league record and was the runner-up at the NAIA Region III Championships.
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