Yellowjackets Beat Number One Seed UW-Whitewater, Fall in Championship

By: Maria Freemire
Staff Writer
Posted 5/4/09

The Yellowjacket softball team closed up their season the first weekend in May with conference tournament play in Superior at the Liabaert complex. 

The games started May 1 and the team got off on the wrong start, but then fought all the way back to the championship game with the host team finding themselves in the championship

The women’s softball team ended the regular season on a positive note by winning against against UW-Plateville with a final of 5-3.  The team went into the conference tournament on Friday as the #8 seed.  The softball team had to played two games on Friday, two games on Saturday and their final game on Sunday.

On the first day of tournament play, the Yellowjackets faced UW-Whitewater and UW-River Falls.  The first game of the night against UW-Whitewater served as a confidence boost for the Yellowjackets.  Previously in the season, the Yellowjackets had lost to UW-Whitewater with scores of 3-2 and being shut out with a score of 6-0.  UW-Whitewater was the number one seed coming into the tournament.  

The Yellowjackets proved to UW-Whitewater how much they had improved over the season by beating them in the first tournament game with a final score of 12-4.
UW-Superior’s confidence kept them rolling and helped them to capture the second win of the night against UW-River Falls.  UW-River Falls was the number five seed coming into the tournament.  Previously in the season, UW-River Falls had won one game against UW-Superior with a score of 8-0 and the Yellowjackets had also captured a win against UW-River Falls with a score of 16-7.  These scores didn’t make a difference on Friday night.  The Yellowjackets shut out UW-River Falls with a final score of 7-0.

The Yellowjackets had their first loss, of the double elimination tournament, on their first game Saturday afternoon against UW-La Crosse.  UW-La Crosse was the number two seed coming into the tournament.  Previously playing against UW-La Crosse during the season, UW-Superior had difficulty capturing wins and lost both games played against UW-La Crosse.  The final for the tournament game was 2-13.  Although the team didn’t let the loss get them down and responded with another win against UW-River Falls later in the evening.  The final score of the game against UW-River Falls was 9-3, and included a grand slam from freshman Chelsey Jarzin

The final game of the tournament, and what proved to be the final game of the year for the Yellowjackets was another matchup against UW-La Crosse May 3.  This game resulted in a loss for UWS and would be the end of the road for the Yellowjacket 2009 softball team.  The final of the game against UW-La Crosse was a shutout score of 2-0.  The game was scoreless until the last inning when UW-La Crosse put up two runs in the top half of the inning.  The Yellowjacket bats didn’t respond in the bottom half of the inning and their hot streak was abruptly snapped by UW-La Crosse.  

Although the Yellowjackets were the eighth seed in the tournament, they showed character taking down the first seed and had unbelievable run in the conference tournament.  Their season ended with an overall record of 16-20, and a conference record of 2-13.

                                                                  Photo: UWSUPER.EDU