World Series bound: Wilmington University softball heads to NCAA Division II nationals

In his 10 years as Wilmington University softball coach, Mike Shehorn hasn’t held back when talking to prospective players.

Before this season, Wilmington had reached NCAA postseason play six times.

“I tell every recruit when they come in here that our goal is to get to a College World Series,” Shehorn said.

As Shehorn spoke those words Monday, Wilmington players were on their Asbury Field preparing to do just that.

For the first time, Wilmington will play in the NCAA Division II Softball Championship starting Thursday in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

"It’s a dream come true," Shehorn said. "It means everything to the players, the work they put in."

The Wildcats (44-14) came out of the loser’s bracket to win the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Tournament title May 6. They then won the NCAA East Region 2 Tournament on their home field in a final-round rematch with CACC victim Georgian Court on May 13.

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Wilmington then went to a deciding third game to beat Adelphi in Garden City, New York, 3-1 Saturday in the East Super Regional to earn its spot in the 8-team championship bracket. The softball team’s accomplishment came eight years after Wilmington’s baseball team reached its Division II nationals.

“A lot of us have played together for a long time,” Wilmington third baseman Sara Miller out of Smyrna High said, “and it would just mean everything for us to win.”

Delaware flavor

Eight of Wilmington’s 18 players – none of whom are seniors — are from Delaware high schools, including six of the Wildcats’ top seven hitters.

Shehorn, the former coach at Caesar Rodney High who commutes from his home in Magnolia, established that as his recruiting focus right away.

“I try to get the best players I can find in the state of Delaware,” said Shehorn, whose full-time job at Wilmington is as athletic facilities manager. “Delaware is a small state but there are so many good players here, so I try to get them to stay here before they wanna leave.”

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He also recruits nearby Mid-Atlantic states — ace pitcher Kylee Gunkel is from Maryland — plus western softball hotbeds, with two Wilmington players from California and another from Arizona.

“The thing for us that we have a huge sell is, for one, we have a great facility and the cost for the school is extremely low,” said Shehorn, who can offset part of that with athletic scholarship aid.

The right move

Several of Wilmington’s top players actually transferred from Division I schools seeking a more appealing personal situation, including shortstop Lexi Moore out of Smyrna and pitcher Delani Sheehan from Delaware Military Academy following productive freshman seasons at Delaware.

Moore’s .446 batting average leads Wilmington and Sheehan has a 2.86 ERA and .346 batting average.

Other top players include Wilmington Charter grad Taylor Gillis, who attended Monmouth and Delaware before landing at Wilmington. She is batting .411 while displaying the type of clutch center-field defense that made headlines when she was in high school.

Other top hitters include Miller, who has 10 homers and 64 RBI to go with her .365 average, Lake Forest’s Jess Reed (.336), who transferred from Towson, and Appoquinimink’s Isabella Eleazar (.330).

Positive early hints

Wilmington won its first two games of the season against East Stroudsburg, which is coached by former Delaware coach Jaime Wohlbach and also reached the Division II World Series.

The Wildcats then played 12 games against top Division II teams in Georgia and Florida and won six.

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“In years past we would go down there and we would lose by one or lose by two,” Shehorn said. “This year we were winning. I thought, if we continue to grow, we got a pretty good chance here.”

Miller said that gives Wilmington confidence.

“We know everyone’s good there [at nationals],” she said. “But the teams we played in Florida were really good, too, so we know we can hang with any team.”

Speed wins

Certainly, a team that makes the NCAA’s final eight in Division II softball must possess widespread ability.

Sure enough, Wilmington ranks 24th nationally among the 272 teams in Division II with a .328 batting average and 26th with a team ERA of 2.05.

No. 5-seeded Grand Valley State of Michigan, which No. 4 Wilmington faces in Thursday’s 1:30 p.m. opener, is even better with a .343 team batting average that ranks ninth and a 1.55 ERA that’s seventh.

But softball games are often won by minute details such as a team’s ability to move runners around the bases. That’s where Wilmington particularly excels.

The Wildcats are first nationally with 85 sacrifice bunts and, led by Moore and Gillis, are 10th with 138 stolen bases.

“For us, our key is our team speed,” Shehorn said.

Have an idea for a compelling local sports story or is there an issue that needs public scrutiny? Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: wilmington university in first ncaa division II softball world series