March 24, 2010, Clermont, Fla. —  The Tigers took on a pair of nationally-ranked teams today at the National Training Center Tournament and came away with a split. DePauw opened with a 2-0 win in eight innings over 14th-ranked Eastern Connecticut State before suffering a 6-4 loss to 25th-ranked Wisconsin-Whitewater in eight innings as well. The Tigers are 12-3 with today's split.

In the Eastern Connecticut game, the teams battled through a scoreless tie through seven innings. With the tiebreaker rule in place for the eighth, Cymone Allen was placed on second and moved to third on Rachel MacBeth's sacrifice bunt and scored when Jen Kosinski reached on a fielder's choice sacrifice bunt. Kosinski later scored on Amy Hallett's double.

Eastern Connecticut loaded the bases in the fifth, but Katie O'Toole flew out to left and the throw to the plate nailed Kim Church and then the throw to third put out Katie Stack for a triple play.

Hallett led DePauw with two of their four hits, while Priscilla Alicea had two of Eastern Connecticut's four. Megan Soultz improved to 11-2 with the four-hit shutout, while Molly Rathbun dropped to 3-1.

In the day's second game against Wisconsin-Whitewater, the Warhawks took a 1-0 lead in the third on an unearned run and then made it 4-0  when Lauren Rankins singled home pinch-runner Emily Muche and pinch-hitter Alli Driscoll knocked in a pair with a double.

The Tigers countered and tied the game at 4-4 with two unearned runs in the bottom of the fourth and two more in the fifth on Kosinski's single and Emma Minx's sacrifice fly.

With the tiebreaker rule in the eighth, Amanda LeBeaus singled, moving Shauna Binsfield to third before Lauren Cruz delivered a sacrifice fly which scored Binsfield. Courtney Baldwin then reached on an error which allowed LeBeau to score. DePauw had runners on first and third with no outs in the bottom of the eighth, but the Tigers' Hallett flied out and Minx was thrown out at the plate.

DePauw had seven hits with Holly Paris leading the way with three. The Warhawks totaled seven hits led by Amanda LeBeau's and Jordyn Gaza with two each. Kristin Barrow suffered the loss after pitching four innings of relief without allowing an earned run. She dropped to 1-1. Brittany LeBeau improved to 1-1 with the relief win.

DePauw returns to action on Friday, March 26, against Chicago and Allehgeny.

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