Needing two wins to keep its season alive, the seventh-ranked Case Western Reserve University softball team swept 25th-ranked Calvin University on Saturday at Mather Park in Cleveland to win the 2024 NCAA Division III Softball Championship Cleveland Regional and advance to the Super Regional Round. CWRU defeated Calvin 4-0 in the first game and 3-1 in the second game.

Case Western Reserve, who improved to 38-7 with the two wins, will face Coe, the winner of the Greencastle, Indiana, Regional, in the Super Regional Round next weekend at a site to be determined. The best-of-three series is scheduled to begin on Thursday, May 23. More information will be posted on the CWRU Athletics website when it is known.

The 38 wins this season match a program record set during the 2023 and 2018 seasons. The Spartans will be playing in the Super Regional Round for the third time in program history, advancing to the national finals in 2018 and falling to Trine in 2022.

The Knights ended their season with a record of 34-12.

CWRU junior pitcher Lexi Miskey was masterful in the circle for the Spartans on Saturday, allowing just one run across 14 innings while striking out 18. She was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Cleveland Regional, going 4-1 with a 1.68 earned run average and 40 strikeouts in 33 and one-third innings in five games. She broke a single-season program record with her eighth strikeout in the first game on Saturday, eclipsing the previous record of 207 that she set last season.

Seniors KaiLi Gross and Stevie Rieger and first-year Karen Potts were all named to the All-Tournament Team. Gross led the team with a .588 batting average, hitting two doubles, a triple, and a home run while driving in six and swiping four bags. Potts had a team-high seven runs batted in, hitting .475 with three home runs, and Rieger hit .313 while scoring five times and stealing three bases.

Game 6: #7 CWRU 4, #25 Calvin 0

The Spartans, playing as the visiting team in the first game, started the contest with three consecutive hits. Gross drove in the first run of the contest with a double. 

Following three scoreless frames, first-year Nylah Durham led off the fifth inning with a single and scored the second run of the game on a triple by senior Kela Jagoda.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Knights put two runners in scoring position with a walk, a hit batter, and a sacrifice bunt. Miskey struck out the next batter, and after a walk loaded the bases, struck out the final batter of the inning to keep Calvin off the board.

Miskey recorded her program record setting strikeout with one out in the bottom half of the frame, but the Knights earned their first hit of the contest in the following at-bat. A groundout sent the game to the seventh inning with CWRU still ahead 2-0.

Gross doubled the lead, driving in two key insurance runs with a deep two-out home run to right field. It was her ninth roundtripper of the season and the 23rd of her career.

Miskey worked around a one-out baserunner in the final frame to secure the win and force a seventh game. She pitched all seven innings, earning her first shutout of the season and the seventh of her career.

Gross had three hits in the game, driving in three of the four runs. Durham had her second career two-hit game, scoring once.

Game 7: #7 CWRU 3, #25 Calvin 1

The first three Knights reached base to begin the winner-take-all seventh game. Miskey recorded a strikeout to get the first out, induced a lineout for out number two, and struck out the next batter to escape the inning without allowing a run.

Gross broke the deadlock in the bottom half of the frame, driving in her fourth run of the day with a sacrifice fly. The sacrifice fly was the 10th of her career, breaking a tie with Lauren Wolz for the program record, and her sixth of the season, breaking a three-way tie for the single-season program record. Junior Isabella Russo drove in a second run with a well-placed bunt single to make the score 2-0.

Both teams had opportunities to scored over the next two frames but were unable to plate a run. Calvin put two runners in scoring position in the second inning with two outs, but the visitors were unable to score, and CWRU opened the following frame with two consecutive walks. However, Calvin pitcher Brooke Hunderman retired the next three batters to keep the Knights' deficit at two.

A two-out single in the fifth inning broke up a string of nine batters in a row set down by Miskey, and a double by Calvin's Carly Dole made the score 2-1. A single put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position, but the Spartan hurler stuck out the next batter to retire the side.

The Spartans responded with back-to-back one-out doubles by Rieger and Gross, pushing the lead back to two. Miskey retired the side in order in the sixth and seventh innings, sending CWRU to the Super Regional Round.

2024 NCAA Division III Softball Cleveland Regional
All-Tournament Team
Emi Curcio - Penn St. Behrend
Kayla Faber-Cournane – Dominican
Hanna Voegtle – Dominican
Karen Potts – CWRU
KaiLi Gross – CWRU
Stevie Rieger – CWRU
Brooke Hunderman – Calvin
Taylor Sanborn – Calvin
Carly Dole – Calvin

Most Outstanding Player
Lexi Miskey – CWRU