Rio Grande Sports Information
SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. - After starting the season with five straight wins and a championship in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Classic in Georgia, the University of Rio Grande softball team endured its fair share of ups and downs during the 2024 campaign.
But the RedStorm have rediscovered their mojo with the start of post-season play and now find themselves two wins away from a trip to the Opening Round of the NAIA National Championship.
Head coach Chris Hammond's squad recorded a pair of 3-1 wins over Point Park University on Friday in the River States Conference Softball Championship at Little Creek Park and will meet rival Shawnee State University in a best-of-3 championship series on Saturday beginning at 10 a.m.
A second game with the East Division champion Bears (36-9) will follow 30 minutes after the opener at approximately 12:30 p.m., while a third game - if needed - is set for 30 minutes after the conclusion of game two at approximately 3 p.m.
Saturday's survivor will join RSC regular season champion IU Southeast in the national tournament, which begins May 13 at 10 sites across the country.
Rio Grande, the tourney's No. 2 seed from the RSC East Division, improved to 32-17 with Friday's wins.
Point Park, the No. 4 seed from the East Division, finished 23-25 in its swansong to both the conference and the NAIA.
The Pioneers are joining the ranks of NCAA Division II and the Mountain East Conference beginning with the 2024-25 academic year.
In the opening game of the day, Rio Grande scored twice in the home fourth inning to go in front for good.
The RedStorm grabbed a 1-0 lead in the third inning on a sacrifice fly by sophomore Kayla Sedgwick (Richwood, OH), but the Pioneers countered with a run-scoring hit by Sydnie Reese in the fourth inning to knot the score at 1-all.
Rio grabbed the lead back in the bottom of the frame, though, when junior Peyton Young (Mt. Orab, OH) and sophomore Gabby Adams (Grove City, OH) began the inning with consecutive singles and both were bunted into scoring position by senior Lexi Carnahan (Felicity, OH).
Freshman Trinity Davis (Hartsville, SC), who was pinch-running for Young, scored moments later on squeeze bunt by junior Boo Sturgill (Wheelersburg, OH) and Adams rode home on a sacrifice fly by junior Megan Bazler (Portsmouth, OH).
Junior Madison Ogden provided the RedStorm with another solid pitching performance, just hours after tossing a one-hit shutout and fanning 15 in a 2-0 win over Oakland City University.
The right-hander scattered four hits and a walk while striking out 11 in a complete game effort, pushing her record to 16-8.
Sedgwick and Adams had two hits each in the winning effort.
Point Park earned a second shot at the RedStorm by defeating IU Southeast for the second straight day, 4-3, in an elimination contest.
The second meeting saw both teams score in the first inning - Point Park on a double by Gianna Welsh and Rio Grande on a double by Ogden.
That's how things stayed until the bottom of the sixth inning when the RedStorm snapped the tie and went ahead for good.
Sophomore Madison Perry (Portsmouth, OH) put Rio in front by leading off the inning with her first home run of the season and Young later plated an insurance marker with a sacrifice fly to make it 3-1.
Ogden became the RedStorm's third pitcher of the contest in the seventh inning and allowed a hit while striking out two en route to her second save of the season.
Junior Hannah Beers (Springfield, OH) tossed four innings of four-hit, scoreless relief to get the win.
Ogden and senior Caitlyn Brisker (Oak Hill, OH) both had two hits in the winning effort for Rio, while Welsh and Bella Magliocco had two hits apiece for Point Park.
