MADISON, WISC. - The Madison College softball team swept Tuesday's quarterfinal best-of-three series with Moraine Valley Community College 2-0 to advance to this weekend's NJCAA Region 4 Division II District B Tournament. The #3-seeded WolfPack rolled to an 8-0 win in five innings to begin the series, and then held off a late rally from the #6-seeded Cyclones for a 4-3 series-clinching decision in the second game at Robert D. Goodman Softball Field. The Pack improves to 4-1 all-time against MVCC, and extends a their win streak in quarterfinal games to 12 straight dating back to a game one loss on the road in 2015. 

Tuesday's games also saw Interim Associate Athletic Director Lois Heeren throw out the ceremonial first pitch in recognition of her commitment to Madison College and her upcoming retirement following three-plus decades of working in collegiate athletics. Between games, the softball team recognized a ten-member Sophomore Class of 2023, which includes Briar Armatoski, Chariell Butler, Mackenzie Backman, Makenna Gish, Sammy Nelson, Kiana Patterson, Ellie Rademacher, Sophie Rivera, Claire Smedema, and Addison Warner.



Game #1: (3) Madison College 8, (6) Moraine Valley Community College 0 (5 innings)

Sophomore Kiana Patterson (12-3) allowed just two hits and issued two walks in a dominating performance from the pitcher's circle in the series opener. The righthander from Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, struck out six batters and kept the Cyclones off the scoreboard. Patterson becomes the seventh player in program history to win 12 games in a season.

While Patterson had the MVCC bats guessing, Madison got to work building a 2-0 lead in the second inning. Sophomore Sophie Rivera tripled to right field to lead off the inning, and scored on a sacrfice fly from Jenna Redders. After Makenna Gish reached on an error, stole second, and advanced on another error, freshman Mackenna Schultz single her in with a line drive up the middle.

Chariell Butler and Ellie Rademacher began the third inning with back-to-back hits, and Patterson helped her own cause with a two-bagger to center that scored both. Redders, a Middleton, Wisconsin, native, came through again with a double to the wall in center to bring home pinch runner Ella Wyskochil to make it 5-0. 

Yet another sequence of consecutive singles followed by a double yielded one more run in the fourth, with Rademacher ripping the extra base hit past the centerfielder for a RBI. The WolfPack then found themselves with a chance to secure a run-ruled victory as two runners were aboard in the bottom of the fifth. Briar Armatoski stepped up with two outs and lined a double to right to score Schultz and Redders for the walk-off win.

Rademacher registered here second three-hit game in the last four games, while extending her current hitting streak to eight straight games. She drove in a run and scored another. Butler, a second year from La Crosse, Wisconsin, also had multiple hits as she went 2 for 3 with a team-high two runs scored. Redders finished with a hit, two RBI, and a run scored, while Patterson and Armatoski each had a hit and two runs batted in. 

Five of the team's 11 hits went for extra bases.

Game #2: (3) Madison College 4, (6) Moraine Valley Community College 3

Game two saw the WolfPack jump out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Sophie Rivera and Makenna Gish each drove a two-out double to left to score a run. The differential grew to 4-0 in the third, and again the runs all came with two outs on the scoreboard. Rivera got it started with a two-bagger to center, and then scored on Gish's single. Freshman Madison Coubal followed with a double to left and the Pack seemed headed for another lopsided win.



However, the defense and the pitching tightened up, with 12 consecutive outs being recorded until back-to-back hits for the WolfPack in the fifth. The runners were left stranded, but it didn't seem to matter as starting pitcher Claire Smedema was working on a two-hit shutout with 14 straight batters retired until she ran into trouble in the seventh. A single and two walks loaded the bases, and a two-run base hit put Moraine Valley Community College (12-29) on the scoreboard for the first time in 12 innings of play.

The WolfPack turned to freshman Hannah Aldrich to try and close out the Cyclones, however, a walk and a RBI-single put the score at 4-3 and moved the tying run to third base with two outs after the Pack cut down a potential game-tying run at the plate. Madison then turned to Game 1 winner Kiana Patterson for the save, and the righthander delivered with a pop out to shortstop.

Smedema (5-3), a former Columbus HS athlete, tied a career-best with eight strikeouts en route to her fifth win. She was tagged for three runs on four hits and two walks in her 6.1 innings. Aldrich was credited with a third of an inning with a hit and a walk. Patterson recorded her second save of the season.

Madison racked up ten hits, led by three hits each from Rivera and Gish as the No 4 & 5 hitters. Rivera, an Ixonia, Wisconsin, native, was 3 for 3 with two doubles, two runs scored, and one batted in as she now owns a six-game hitting streak. Gish, a native of West Bend, Wisconsin, produced her first three-hit game since going 6 for 6 over two games in Florida on March 10. She had two RBI and a run scored.

Up Next:

Madison College (25-18) advances to the NJCAA Region 4 Division II District B Tournament for the seventh straight year since moving up a division in 2015. The four-team, double-elimination tournament will be held in Rockford, Illinois. The WolfPack will open against #2-seed Triton College (40-19-1) on Saturday, May 13 at noon at Rock Valley College. The all-time series favors the Pack by a 25-16 margin, though they are 1-1 in postseason meetings over the past four years. The Trojans and WolfPack split a doubleheader in Madison on April 23. The other matchup pits #1-seed Rock Valley College (41-10) against #5-seed Black Hawk College (32-23-1).

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