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The Capital University softball team, which clinched its first Ohio Athletic Conference regular season title since 2002 last Saturday, will host this weekend's four-team, double-elimination OAC Tournament at Clowson Field.
Games will take place Friday beginning at 10 a.m., Saturday beginning at 11 a.m. and, if necessary, Sunday at noon. The conference tournament champion will earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament, which starts next week.
All four teams enter the championship ranked in the top six in the Central Region. The Crusaders are the top seed at 32-8 overall and 16-2 in the OAC and are slotted second in the region. John Carroll (25-9, 14-4) is the second seed and third in the region, Mount Union (22-11, 12-6) is No. 3 and sixth in the region and Marietta (21-15, 11-7) is the fourth seed and No. 5 in the region.
After John Carroll and Mount Union lead off the tournament with a game at 10 a.m. Friday, Capital takes on Marietta at noon. The two teams split a pair of closely contested games at Clowson Field on April 6. The Crusaders took the opener 6-5 before the Pioneers plated three runs in the first inning en route to a 6-4 win in Game 2.
The Crusaders enter postseason play on a 15-game winning streak, including Saturday's 5-0 triumph over cross-town rival Otterbein that gave the team win No. 31 to set a school record for victories in a single season.
All eight players who have at least 100 at-bats for the season are hitting .300 for Capital. Senior shortstop Devan Boggs (West Jefferson, Ohio) is on her way to her second straight All-America campaign, currently leading the team and the conference in triples (5), home runs (11) total bases (123), slugging percentage (.872) and runs batted in (47). Boggs, the OAC's all-time leader in doubles, is batting .482 at the top of the Crusaders' order.
Sophomore centerfielder Kelsey Swain (Pickerington, Ohio), a 2012 All-OAC second team honoree, is hitting .430, good for second on the team, and has a team-best 14 stolen bases. Senior first baseman Lexi Majoy (Huron, Ohio) and sophomore catcher Maura Rose (Williamsport, Pa.) occupy the middle of the team's order. Majoy is hitting .350 with six homers, 32 RBIs and a team-high 15 walks, while Rose enters tournament play at .331 with eight doubles, eight home runs and 36 RBIs.
Sophomore left fielder LeAnna Cotton (Okeechobee, Fla.) and freshman second baseman Brooklyn Staten (Grove City, Ohio) have also been big contributors in the middle of the Capital order. Cotton has five doubles, six home runs and 29 RBIs, while Staten is batting .387 with 29 runs scored. Senior right fielder Katie Neely (Sugar Grove, Ohio) enters postseason play with a career-best .305 average, while freshman third baseman Katlyn Simpson (Loudonville, Ohio) is at .325.
The Crusaders' 1-2 punch of sophomore pitchers Brooke Billings (Clyde, Ohio) and Alyssa Patznick (Newark, Ohio) has kept hitters at bay all season.
Billings, a two-time OAC Pitcher of the Week this season, enters the weekend with a 15-4 record, including 14 complete games and five shutouts, and a 2.27 earned run average. Patznick leads the team in wins with a 17-4 mark with 14 complete games, one shutout and 111 strikeouts in a team-high 137 2/3 innings of work.
Defensively, Capital is fielding .965 as a team and two regular players – Rose and Cotton – didn't commit an error during the regular season.
The Crusaders last appeared in the OAC Tournament in 2007, dropping consecutive games as the No. 4 seed. Capital last won the tournament in 1997, coming out of the loser's bracket and defeating then-powerhouse Muskingum in consecutive games to take the championship. The program's only other title came in 1991, when the team also knocked off Muskingum.
