of the 2004 OAC Tournament at Muskingum
TWINSBURG, OHIO -- The Baldwin-Wallace College softball team, 21-13 overall and 11-7 during the Ohio Athletic Conference regular season, will play OAC rival Mount Union College in its first game of the 2004 OAC Tournament on Friday, April 30 at 11:00 a.m. at host Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio.
OAC regular season champion Muskingum Fighting Muskies finished the 2004 campaign with an unblemished 18-0 OAC mark to earn the top spot and hosting rights for this year's four-team, double-elimination tournament in New Concord. Games will be played on both Friday and Saturday in New Concord.
Baldwin-Wallace College and Mount Union College tied for second in the Conference with identical 11-7 records, but B-W earned the second seed in the Tournament because it swept the Purple Raiders in the regular season, 14-1 and 8-6. B-W earned its 15th trip to the OAC Tournament, including its second straight and five of the last six years. The Yellow Jackets have finished as high as runner-up four times, including the last year.
B-W is led by sophomore All-American catcher Nicole Loudin (Sheffield Lake/ Elyria Catholic), outfielders Lori Schmidt (Brunswick) and Lindsay Kaya (Oberlin/ Fireland) , sophomore shortstop Casey Ward (Amherst/ Marion Steele) and junior second baseman Amy Gladieux (Northwood) as well as others at the plate. On the mound, B-W has three solid starters in senior Liz Fries (Columbus/Bishop Watterson) and juniors K.C. Young (Olmsted Twp./ Olmsted Falls) and Jeanette Brezina (Parma Valley Forge). Both Young and Brezina also hit better than .300 too.
To date, Nicole Loudin has the top batting average at .438 and also tops the team in runs scored with 26, homeruns with a single-season school-record 11, runs batted-in with 34, slugging average at .896, bases on balls drawn with 19 and on base average at .526. Loudin's 11 homers broke her own B-W single-season record of 10 which she set a year ago as a freshman. Her 21 total homers is a B-W career record. Lindsay Kaya is second in batting average at .381. Junior pitcher and designated hitter K.C. Young is third in batting average .327 with a team-leading eight doubles, two triples and 16 RBI. Lori Schmidt is fourth in batting average at .319 and is third in stolen bases with six. Jeanette Brezina is batting .316 to rank fifth. Casey Ward is batting .304 and is tied with Loudin with a team-high eight stolen bases. Amy Gladieux is hitting .277 overall and is third with 15 RBI.
On the mound, Liz Fries is 9-2 overall and tops the team with a 1.26 ERA and has 50 strikeouts in 77 and two-thirds innings pitched. Brezina has a 7-3 record and a 2.79 ERA with 30 strikeouts in 65 and one-third innings pitched. K.C. Young, considered the staff ace, is 5-8 overall with a 2.34 ERA and a team-leading 66 strikeouts in a team-leading 92 and two-thirds innings pitched.
In the second game, top-seed Muskingum will face fourth-seed Ohio Northern University at 1:00 p.m. The winners of the first and second game meet at 3:00 p.m. and the losers of the first two games meet in the final game of the first day at 5:00 p.m. The losers bracket final is Saturday morning at 11:00 a.m. with the first championship game (of two if necessary) begins at 1:00 p.m.
275 Eastland Rd.