Eighth seed Indiana State wins Valley tournament softball title in Wichita

Indiana State started the Missouri Valley Conference softball tournament on Thursday at Wilkins Stadium needing four wins in three days. Not a promising proposition considering the Sycamores’ regular season.

ISU never had a four-game winning streak and came to Wichita as the No. 8 seed. Improbably, the Sycamores are returning to Terre Haute with an NCAA regional berth after defeating Missouri State 9-2 in Saturday’s Valley championship.

The final three ISU wins, including a second-round triumph over Wichita State on Thursday, were against top four seeds. The Sycamores defeated top-seed Drake in the semifinals to earn a matchup with No. 2 seed Missouri State.

“Just because you’re not winning games doesn’t mean your team isn’t getting better,” ISU coach Shane Bouman said. “Our goal this year was to get to this tournament, and when we get to the tournament we wanted to win the tournament.”

ISU was the final seed in the tournament but easily reached it, winning eight-more conference games than ninth-place Loyola after finishing 13-13. ISU didn’t experience a long winning streak but never allowed the losses to pile up, either, avoiding a sweep in every Valley series.

Twice, ISU won the finale of a series after losing the first two games. That scrappiness became its identity during the tournament games, as the Sycamores used their speed, defense and pitching to beat some of the conference’s best.

ISU held WSU, MSU and Drake to a combined five runs. Saturday, the Sycamores broke it open with a four-run fourth inning that included a walk and a stolen base, along with Brooke Riemenschneid’s two-run double off the wall.

Starting pitcher Taylor Lockwood, ISU’s most indispensable player this week, did the rest. She held the Bears to three hits in her fourth tournament game and third start of the week.

“(We had) a group of girls who were all in, selling out for everybody and a common goal,” Bouman said. “It’s been fun to watch.”

The Bears’ most notable scoring threat while the deficit was manageable happened in the third inning. They had runners on first and third with two outs when Erika Zimmer intentionally got in a rundown to attempt to allow Sara Jones to score.

It didn’t work. Zimmer was tagged out just before Jones crossed the plate. MSU didn’t get another runner to third base until the sixth inning.

“Pitching, defense, and get some key hits,” Bouman said. “That’s how our weekend went, and that’s why we’re standing here right now.”

This story was originally published May 9, 2015 at 5:56 PM with the headline "Eighth seed Indiana State wins Valley tournament softball title in Wichita."