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Morningside 2010 Fall Tournament Schedule
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Photo / Siouxland Sports Authority.com
Mackenzie Neely was named to the NAIA All-America First-Team |
Morningside College broke three school records and tied another during the 2010 softball season.
The Mustangs’ individual record breakers were Kelly Baumert, a senior pitcher from Omaha, Neb.; and Morgan Swanson, a sophomore pitcher from Story City, Iowa.
Baumert finished her career with a won-lost record of 92-30 for a career winning percentage of .754 to break Morningside’s former victory rate record of .736 by Jeree Carlson from 1993-96. Baumert’s 92 career victories tied a Morningside record previously set by Whitney McElrath from 2005-08.
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 Mackenzie Neely, a freshman designated player from Roland, Iowa, has been named to the first-team of the 2010 NAIA Softball All-America selections.
Neely was the leading hitter for this year’s Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) regular season and post-season tournament champions, who finished the season with a 40-9 record and made their second straight appearance in the NAIA Softball National Championships in Decatur, Ala.
Neely collected a team-high 55 hits in 142 at-bats for a .387 batting average to go along with team-high totals of 12 doubles and 40 RBIs. She was also the team leader with a .620 slugging percentage and a .450 on-base percentage and ranked fifth on the team with seven home runs.
She hit .423 (22-for-52) with runners in scoring position, .667 (10-for-15) with runners on third base and less than two outs, and .514 (18-for-35) when leading off an inning. Neely had a .451 batting average in regular season GPAC competition to help the Mustangs win the league’s regular season title with a 21-3 record for a four-game margin over runner-up Nebraska Wesleyan University.
Neely hit safely in 35 of her 48 games, including 15 multiple-hit performances.
Click here for the complete 2010 NAIA All-America Softball Team.
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Allison Von Ehwegen |
Amanda Von Ehwegen |
Morningside College’s Allison and Amanda Von Ehwegen, twin sisters from Milford, Iowa, have been named Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athletes in the sport of softball.
Allison Von Ehwegen, a sophomore outfielder, has a 3.55 cumulative grade point average (GPA) with a major in general science teaching.
Amanda Von Ehwegen, a sophomore pitcher, has a 3.75 cumulative GPA with a major in mathematics teaching.
Student-athletes must be of at least junior academic status and have a minimum GPA of 3.50 in order to be eligible for Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athlete honors.
Morningside posted a 40-9 record and was the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) regular season and post-season tournament champion en route to its second consecutive appearance in the NAIA Softball National Championships. The Mustangs have posted four 40-win seasons in the last five years.
Click here for the complete list of 2010 Daktronics-NAIA Softball Scholar-Athletes.
 Kelly Baumert tied the Morningside College record for career pitching victories when she pitched a three-hit shutout in the Mustangs’ 4-0 victory against Indiana University Southeast in Monday’s pool play finale at the 2010 NAIA Softball National Championships in Decatur, Ala.
It was the 92nd victory of Baumert’s career to tie a Morningside record previously set by 2008 graduate Whitney McElrath. Baumert finished her career with a record of 92-30, including a 22-7 mark this year. Baumert’s .754 career winning percentage is the highest victory rate in Morningside history.
Morningside, which dropped its first two pool play games by identical 5-1 scores against third-ranked Lubbock Christian University and 15th-ranked Bethel College, finished the season with a record of 40-9. The Mustangs posted their fourth 40-win season in the last five years.
Morningside chased Grenadier starter Kelsey Everett with three runs in the top of the second inning. The Mustangs did all of their damage with two outs and nobody on base. Kylie Tirado started the rally with a two-out double. Alyx Peery followed with a walk to set the stage for Alisha Wheat, who delivered a two-run double to put the Mustangs in front. Kylie Helmink followed that hit with a RBI single to drive in Wheat and force the Grenadiers to relieve Everett in favor of Kayla Duke.
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 Just like it dominated the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) during the regular season and the post-season, Morningside College claimed six of the 18 first-team spots on the 2010 All-GPAC Softball Team selected by the league’s head coaches.
Morningside’s Kelly Baumert, Erin Bohlmann, Kayla Clarey, Kylie Helmink, Mackenzie Neely, and Alyx Peery were all named to the All-GPAC first-team and the Mustangs’ Jessica Jones-Sitzmann was named the 2010 GPAC Coach of the Year.
Jones-Sitzmann is in her 12th season at Morningside, where she is the winningest softball coach in school history with a record of 403-242. This season she guided the Mustangs to GPAC regular season and post-season tournament championships and to a second consecutive berth in the NAIA Softball National Championships, slated for May 20-26 in Decatur, Ala. The Mustangs will take a 39-7 record and a 15-game winning streak into the national tourney. Jones-Sitzmann also receive GPAC Coach of the Year honors in 2007 and 2009 after she led the Mustangs to the league’s regular season titles and she also guided Morningside to a GPAC post-season tournament championship in 2008.
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Morningside added the GPAC Softball Tournament championship to its GPAC regular season title after it blasted Midland Lutheran 13-2 in five innings in Saturday’s tourney championship game in Hastings, Neb.
The Mustangs went 4-0 at the GPAC tourney to stretch their winning streak to 15 games. Morningside will take a 39-7 record to the NAIA Softball National Championships slated for May 20-26 in Decatur, Ala.
Morningside drubbed Midland Lutheran behind an impressive power hitting display that saw the Mustangs blast six home runs, including two by Kyle Helmink, who drove in five runs with a two-run homer in the second inning and a three-run shot in the third. Erin Bohlmann, Mackenzie Neely, Emily Wassom, and Kayla Clarey also homered for the Mustangs.
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 Erin Bohlmann, a junior outfielder from Denison, Iowa, has been named the Hauff Mid-America Sports/Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Softball Player of the Week.
Bohlmann had seven hits in 12 at-bats for a .583 batting average last week to help lead the Mustangs to doubleheader sweeps of the University of Sioux Falls and Nebraska Wesleyan University to wrap up the GPAC’s regular season championship. She had two doubles, one home run, seven RBIs, and four runs scored.
Bohlmann fell behind 0-2 in the count before she delivered a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning to drive in the winning run in a 2-1 victory against Sioux Falls and broke a 2-2 tie with a three-run home run in the sixth inning of a 6-2 victory against Nebraska Wesleyan that clinched the Mustangs’ GPAC title.
She is hitting .316 with six home runs and 32 RBIs for the season.
Morningside finished the regular season with a 35-7 record and will take an 11-game winning streak and the No. 1 seed into this week’s GPAC Softball Championship slated for May 6-8 in Hastings, Neb. The GPAC regular season championship earned the Mustangs a berth in the 2010 NAIA Softball National Championships scheduled for May 20-26 in Decatur, Ala.
Morningside College head softball coach Jessica Jones-Sitzmann has announced the names of two high school recruits who will join the Mustangs for the 2011 season.
The recruits are infielders Michelle Brockamp of Sioux City and Kiley Eckenrod of Rock Rapids, Iowa. Brockamp is a senior at Sioux City Bishop Heelan Catholic High School. Eckenrod is a senior at Central Lyon High School and plays softball for George-Little Rock/Central Lyon.
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 Morningside has been tabbed the favorite by the GPAC head coaches to win the 2010 GPAC softball championships.
The Mustangs, who won last year’s GPAC regular season title en route to their first NAIA National Tournament appearance since 1982, received eight of the 13 first place votes in the coaches’ pre-season poll.
Morningside returns five starters and its top two pitchers, including two-time GPAC Pitcher of the Year Kelly Baumert, from a team that finished 34-21 last season.
Click here for the 2010 GPAC Softball Pre-Season Coaches’ Poll.
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