Release Date: May 1, 2002

Thanks to a pair of doubleheader sweeps Sunday, the Monmouth College softball and baseball teams qualified for the postseason.

The Scots’ women (17-13, 9-4) accomplished the feat with a pair of thrilling one-run victories at Illinois College, while the men (20-11, 9-1) received two more brilliant pitching performances from aces Joe Larkins and Ryan Johnson against Knox to not only reach the Midwest Conference Championships but also clinch home field for the four-team playoffs scheduled May 10-11. Even though MC two games remain this weekend, MC’s 4-0, 5-0 sweep of Knox puts it out of reach of the rest of the MWC South.

As runner-up in their division, softball coach LeAnn Hakeman’s team will travel to Lake Forest for their first round game Friday at 10 a.m. against North Division champion Lawrence, a squad the Scots defeated 5-2 last month. Monmouth has timely hitting and the pitching of Shelly Orwig to thank for the clutch victories that landed them in the league playoffs.

Orwig got the start in game one at IC and allowed just three hits and two walks while striking out six. She got stronger as the game wore on, starting when the Lady Blues put a runner on third with nobody out in the fourth.

The junior fanned the next two batters before inducing an inning-ending groundout. In all, she retired 12 of IC’s final 13 batters in the 1-0 win.

In the nightcap, Orwig came on in the bottom of the fourth and, after allowing a runner she inherited from Shanda Symonds to score, she again shut down the Lady Blues. The Scots cut a 4-1 deficit to 4-3 in the sixth on RBIs by Olivia Newton and Michelle Courchane, and they snatched another victory from the jaws of defeat in the seventh. With one out, Nicole Auclair singled and Jen Witmer walked. Jody Schaill doubled in a run to tie the game at 4-4 and Vanessa Madison then came up with a clutch game-winning single.

“I guess you can say we did what we had to do,” said Hakeman. “They weren’t pretty (MC had four errors on the day), but we battled the unpleasant weather and didn’t quit.

“I’m very excited (about the playoffs),” she added. “It’s a neat opportunity for us. If things fall together for us, we can do some damage at the tourney. Physically, I think we can compete with anyone in the conference. We just need to improve mentally, but there’s no reason we can’t win the tournament.”

Heading into the playoffs, Witmer already possesses a handful of Monmouth College career records, and she could add at least one more, particularly if the Scots can win the championship and advance to the national tournament.

Witmer has already established MC records for hits (133), at-bats (369) and games played (127) in her career, and one more homer will tie the record of 17 set by Karen Friedrich. She also has 85 runs (second), 219 total bases (second), 84 RBI (second), a slugging percentage of .593 (third), 24 doubles (fourth) and seven triples (fifth). Witmer’s current .362 average ranks seventh all-time, just ahead of Schaill, who’s in eighth place at .349.

While one pitcher dominated on Sunday for the softball squad, the baseball team turned to its reliable 1-2 punch of Larkins and Johnson. How reliable? Larkins and Johnson became the first two pitchers off the same staff to post 20 career victories apiece, calling to mind famous tandems such as Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain or Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling.

Since March 30, Johnson is 6-0 in six appearances with an ERA of 0.80 and Larkins is 4-0 in five starts with an 0.51 ERA.

“We take for granted how good they really are,” said coach Roger Sander. “They’ve been our aces since they first got here. First it was Ryan, then the past two years it’s been Joe. There’s great competition between the two.”

Call Sunday’s outings a draw, as each pitcher was dominant on a cold day with the wind blowing in. When Steve Glasgow cracked a two-run double to break a scoreless tie in the third inning of the opener, one spectator said, “Game over. Everybody back to the dugouts and we’ll start game two in 20 minutes.”

In the nightcap, Johnson showed he might be on track for a special outing by fanning the side in the first inning on 12 pitches. He went on to finish with nine Ks.

“Joe and Ryan continue to go about their jobs,” said Sander. “We’re not hitting, but we’re getting the timely hits. We just seem to do it by committee.”

The only downfall of the nightcap was that Taylor Thiel and Dustin White had their hitting streaks stopped at 13 and eight games, respectively.

Sander plans to throw Larkins and Johnson Saturday in the Scots’ regular season finale at Grinnell, which will keep them in a regular groove for the following weekend’s MWC playoffs. He did add, however, that he hopes Monmouth takes an early lead in both games so he can work in some of his other pitchers. If that fails to happen, Sander said he might schedule an intrasquad game on Sunday.

Looking down the road, Monmouth will likely face St. Norbert in its first MWC tourney game on May 10. Game time is 10 a.m. at Glasgow Field. The Scots will play at approximately 4 p.m. if they win and at approximately 1 p.m. if they lose.

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