Pella, Iowa – The clock struck midnight for the Gustavus Adolphus softball team on Saturday at the Kuyper Athletic Complex. After suffering a 3-2 loss in 12 innings to Aurora University in their first game of Saturday’s NCAA Regional, the Gusties were in a win or go home situation against host Central College later in the evening. With a 7-4 defeat at the hands of the Dutch in today’s nightcap, Gustavus was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament and concludes its season with an overall record of 34-16.
With the game tied at 4-4 after five complete innings, Central scored three unanswered runs – one in the sixth and two more in the seventh – to pick up the three-run victory and advance to the region final against Aurora on Sunday morning.
After the Dutch opened the game with two runs in the top of the first, the Gusties responded with two of their own in the bottom of the frame. Kaitlin Bicek (So., Owatonna, Minn.) doubled and then was brought home by a Carly Klass (Sr., Richfield, Minn.) single. Klass later knotted the game at 2-2 when she scored on a wild pitch.
Central grabbed the lead for the second straight inning with two more runs in the second to go up 4-2. It took Gustavus until the bottom of the fifth to get the runs back. The Gusties’ fifth inning rally began with a Sarah Rozell (Sr., Lakeville, Minn.) double, a Nosan single, and a Bicek one-run single that plated Rozell. Gustavus tied the game at 4-4 later when Paige Breneman (Sr., Sherburn, Minn.) was able to score Nosan on an infield ground ball.
Gustavus was unable to solve Central’s Trisha Smith over the course of the final two innings. Dutch starter Mallory Schulenberg picked up the win after going three and one-thirds innings and allowing two runs (one earned) on three hits. Smith finished the final three and two-thirds, allowing two runs on six hits.
Gustavus starter Sarah Rozell suffered the loss after giving up seven runs (six earned) on 11 hits in six innings.
Gustavus’s nine-hit game was led by Shelby Nosan and Kaitlyn Bicek (Jr., Northfield, Minn.). Nosan went 2-for-4 with one run, and Bicek went 2-for-4 with a double, a run, and a RBI.