Ellie Sieler, Aly VanBrandt battle in Big Ten softball tourney finals
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Two Monroe County Region products played against each other in the finals of the Big Ten softball tournament Saturday.
Ellie Sieler, a Monroe High graduate, and her Michigan Wolverines clipped Indiana and Whiteford’s Ally VanBrandt 3-1 in the title game.
Sieler was hitless in five tournament at-bats over three games, but scored a run in each game and drew three walks. She walked and scored what turned out to be the winning run against Indiana.
That gave her a season-average of .345, which is second-best on the team behind Maddie Erickson’s .357. She has scored a team-high 46 runs along with six home runs, 19 RBI, and 10 stolen bases.
Michigan, which beat Maryland 10-0 and Wisconsin 6-4 to reach the finals, advances to the NCAA Tournament on Friday in Stillwater, Okla. The Wolverines (41-17) will play Kentucky at 3 p.m. Friday on ESPN2.
Indiana also qualified for the national tournament, earning an at-large bid to the regional at the University of Missouri. The Hoosiers (40-18) will take on Washington at 4 p.m. Friday.
VanBrandt was outstanding in the Big Ten Tournament. She went 2-for-3 against Michigan and 4-for-11 overall with two runs and an RBI.
She leads the Hoosiers with a .370 batting average to go along with 33 runs and 16 RBI.
Indiana, the No. 8 seed, reached the Big Ten finals by upsetting No. 1 seed Northwestern 4-3 and No. 4 seed Nebraska 9-5.
COLLEGE BASEBALL
Summerfield grad strong
MORGANTOWN, W. Va. – Summerfield graduate Derek Clark allowed just two hits over seven innings and struck out 10 as West Virginia whipped Kansas State 13-0 Saturday.
Clark is 6-2 with a 3.14 earned-run average for the season.
PREP SOCCER
Burke ties record
NEW BOSTON – Brooklyn Burke tied the school record with her ninth shutout of the season as New Boston Huron beat Woodhaven 5-0 Friday.
Gabby Emelian led the offense with three goals. Rylie Cassette added a goal and two assists. Avery Turk also scored, Shaylyn Carpenter had two assists and Maggie Mentzer one.
PREP TRACK AND FIELD
Dulecki, Bovair shine
GIBRALTAR – New Boston Huron’s Luke Dulecki ran a personal best of 9:54.37 to take first place in the 3,200 meters and Airport’s Courtney Bovair won the girls 1,600 and 3,200 meters in the Metro Classic at Gibraltar Carlson Saturday.
Huron’s boys took third place behind Riverview (103) and Woodhaven (88) with 81 points.
Huron’s 1,600 relay of Shaun Folkwein, Kyle Biller, Lucas Kuhn and Hunter Mihal just missed a school record with a winning time of 3:28.83.
Kuhn was the runner-up in both the 800 and 1,600 and Dylan Hudkins placed second in the high hurdles and third in the lows.
Mihal (400) and Cayden Kilby (high jump) were third.
Gibraltar Carlson’s boys won the 400 relay with Avery Ortiz, Tristan Joaquin, Mikey Owens and Rodney Mullins.
Carlson’s Reagan Reaume was runner-up to Bovair in the 3,200 and Airport’s Isaac Kemp was third in both throws.
PRO BASEBALL
Urshela a bright spot
TOLEDO – Gio Urshela, on a rehabilitation assignment from the Detroit Tigers, went 3-for-3 to raise his average to .625, but the Toledo Mud Hens managed just four other hits in a 5-4 loss to the St. Paul Saints Sunday.
Toledo starter Ty Madden gave up just one run on three hits over five innings and struck out seven.
Toledo fell to 22-17.
ADULT SOCCER
Winter scores four
MONROE – Jake Winter scored four goals and goalie Will Sowatsky was strong in goal to lead Hot Spurs to a come-from-behind 8-4 win over Athletico in the Monroe Indoor Coed Soccer League at LevelUp Training Sunday night.
Todd Townsend, Dennis Auten and Bre Stiefel scored for Athletico.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Local Sports: Sieler, VanBrandt headed to NCAA softball tourney
