Local college softball team earns NCAA tournament berth

NEW WILMINGTON, Pa (WKBN) – Westminster College Softball has received a bid to the NCAA Division III Softball Tournament.

Watch the announcement with team reaction above!

The Titans received an automatic bid to the tournament with a win in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Championship.

The team found out at a watch party at Westminster Monday. Westminster will be taking on #5 Trine University in Angola, Indiana.

In the PAC Championship, Westminster beat Waynesburg, 1-0 with a walk-off winner in an if-necessary game, May 4th. Titan’s freshman Ava Karpa singled to drive in Ellie Hsieh for the winning run in the bottom of the 7th.

Westminster beat Waynesburg in game one Friday, May 3rd, 7-4. After, Waynesburg won game two in 11 innings 5-2, Saturday May 4th, to force a third game.

The Titans previously lost in the conference title game the past two seasons to advance to the NCAA Tournament. Players said everything that led up to this was worth it.

“Speechless, no words, like so grateful, so blessed,” said Westminster Senior and Grove City High School product Liz Malczak .

“We hear that we’re playing in a regional tournament with four teams, we have to win three more games to keep going,” said Sydney Lokay. “Almost feels surreal that we even have the opportunity to be here and to continue to go awhile.”

Lokay said she never lost hope in the PAC Championship even as it came down to the very end.

“I was just like, okay, okay and we battled and we battled,” said Lokay. “Every inning I went out there and I was like, we can still win a championship. I was just excited to be out there.”

Malczak said after losing in two previous conference championship games, this was the moment the team was waiting for.

“This big championship is what we’ve all dreamed about growing up, like in our little cleats, size eight cleats, like this is our dream,” said Malczak. “This is what we all played for, playing in college, winning in college, and now we’re going to regionals. So it’s pretty awesome.”

This is the first time in 19 years that Westminster softball has won the PAC and received an NCAA tournament birth.

Westminster head softball coach Jan Reddinger, also won her 700th career game as a head coach April 25 in a win over Chatham, 11-0.

“It means you’ve been around for quite a while, it was a good accomplishment,” said Reddinger. “I remember 100, they have gone very quickly, it’s been a fast 28 years.”

Reddinger has coached the Titans for 28 years and 644 of those wins have come at Westminster.

She is one of 16 active head coaches in NCAA Division III to reach the milestone. Reddinger is also the 40th softball coach in Division III history to get 700 all-time wins.

The Titans come into the NCAA tournament with an overall record of 25-11.

Westminster faces off against Trine which has a record of 39-3 this season. Trine was also last year’s Division III champion,

“It feels so doable, if I were to think about the beginning of the season, if somebody were to say the word regionals or super regionals, to me I’d be like, I don’t know,” said Lokay. “Now that we’re here it feels so within reach.”

Westminster gets back to action against Trine, at SportONE/Parkview Softball Field in Angola IN, Thursday May 16th at 12 p.m.

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