Softball: OAC Tournament - Ohio Northern (27-9 Overall) at OAC Tournament
Friday, May 4, 2018 - Sunday, May 6, 2018 - Otterbein Softball Field - Westerville, Ohio
Preview: The No. 3-seeded Ohio Northern softball team travels to Westerville this weekend for the Ohio Athletic Conference tournament ... The Polar Bears will kick off the weekend with a contest against Heidelberg in the opening contest of the OAC Tournament ... Northern finished tied for second in the regular season standings and earned the No. 3 seed in the tournament after tiebreaker rules ... ONU returns to the OAC Tournament after missing the tournament last season ... Northern will make its 23rd appearance in the tournament and fourth in the last five seasons ... The Polar Bears finished third in the tournament in 2016 after claiming runner up honors in 2014 and 2015 ... ONU's last tournament championship came in 2009 ... Northern is 34-36 all-time in the tournament with four tournament titles and four runners up honors ... Senior Jenna Hollar ended the regular season as the team leader and was second in the OAC with a .441 batting average ... Hollar also leads the OAC and team with 37 stolen bases, a new single season record at Ohio Northern ... Her 1.06 stolen bases per contest ranks sixth nationally ... Sophomore Gabby Stewart currently leads the team and is tied for fifth in the OAC with 35 RBI this season ... In the pitchers circle, senior Kirsten Lightel leads the team and OAC with a 1.33 ERA ... She ranks 26th nationally in the category ... Lightel also leads the OAC with 15 victories and is third in the conference with 115 K's this season ... She is the only pitcher in school history to toss 100 strikeouts in each of her four seasons as a Polar Bear ... Junior Kaitlin Surdej ranks second on the team and fifth in the OAC with a 2.63 ERA and is second on the team and tied for fourth in the conference with 12 victories in the pitchers circle ... Northern will begin the tournament with a 10 a.m. matchup with No. 2-seeded Heidelberg ... The Student Princes are making their fourth straight appearance in the tournament and sixth appearance all-time ... Heidelberg is 6-8 all-time in the tournament and has won the tournament title twice, most recently in 2016 ... The winner of the contest between ONU and HU will move on to take on the winner of the contest between No. 1-seeded Otterbein and No. 4-seeded at 2 p.m. on Friday afternoon, while the losers of the first two contests play each other at 4 p.m. on Friday ... Two contests will be played Saturday to determine the champion, with a seventh game on Sunday to determine a champion if necessary.
Batting Leaders
| Batting Ave. | Hits | Runs | RBI | |||||||||||
| 1. | Hollar | .441 | 1. | Hollar | 56 | 1. | Hollar | 46 | 1. | Stewart | 35 | |||
| 2. | Guest | .417 | 2. | Stewart | 43 | 2. | Swierz | 21 | 2. | Guest | 27 | |||
| 3. | Stewart | .394 | 3. | Guest | 35 | 3. | Stewart | 19 | 3. | Loughman | 19 |
Pitching Leaders
| Wins | ERA | Strikeouts | ||||||||
| 1. | Lightel | 15 | 1. | Lightel | 1.33 | 1. | Lightel | 115 | ||
| 2. | Surdej | 12 | 2. | Surdej | 2.63 | 2. | Surdej | 70 |
Series Notes: Heidelberg is 2-1 all-time against Northern in the OAC Tournament ... The Polar Bears own a 2-0 record against Otterbein in the tournament and are 11-12 all-time against Muskingum in the tournament.
ONU head coach Jackie Price: Price is in her second season as head coach of the Polar Bears and owns an 52-22 record, a winning percentage of .703.
