PEORIA, Il.- With their season on the line Friday, Lindenwood delivered its most complete day of the year, riding clutch performances from its veteran stars to two emotional wins over conference rivals Southeast Missouri State and SIUE to reach the program’s first OVC Championship game in program history.
It was a slow start to the tournament as the Lions opened play Wednesday with a 5-2 loss to SEMO, but have now responded with three straight elimination-game victories, including a dominant 2-0 shutout over No. 2 seed UT Martin behind senior pitcher Avery Wapp and a pair of wins Friday.
Lindenwood (31-23, 17-10 OVC) secured its first 30-win season since 2022, the program’s final Division II season, when the Lions advanced to the NCAA regional tournament. It also marks the first 30-win campaign of Lindenwood’s Division I era.
Wapp’s return from injury proved pivotal for the Lions’ postseason run. The senior right-hander tossed a complete-game shutout with eight strikeouts in Thursday’s elimination win over UT Martin. It was Wapp’s fourth career complete game shutout and second against the Skyhawks in the OVC tournament with the other coming last year.
The only offense the Lions needed came in the first inning when Kylee Crowder delivered the game’s lone runs on a two-run double to pull off the upset.
Friday’s semifinal round began with another showdown against rival SEMO, the same team that sent Lindenwood into the elimination bracket earlier in the week.
The Lions answered with a gutsy 3-2 walk-off win in extra innings.
SEMO jumped ahead early with an RBI single in the first inning, but reliever Samantha Roulanaitis entered with two outs and escaped a bases-loaded jam to keep the deficit at one. Lindenwood tied the game in the third on an RBI single from Jolie McMinn before taking a 2-1 lead in the fifth when Tori Hatton ripped a two-out RBI triple down the right-field line.
Hatton’s 43rd RBI of the season set Lindenwood’s NCAA-era single-season RBI record, while Anna Sanders established the program’s NCAA-era single-season hits record with her 67th hit of the year.
SEMO tied the game in the sixth on another RBI single, but Lindenwood’s pitching and defense delivered under pressure despite four errors and constant traffic on the bases. The Redhawks stranded 16 runners compared to Lindenwood’s 10.
One of those high pressure moments came in the seventh inning, with runners on first and third and one out in a 2-2 game, SEMO’s Kinley Wilkins tapped a pitch in front of the plate and McMinn jumped out of her crouch behind the plate, snagged the ball out of the air in fair territory and tagged Wilkins for a crucial second out before pitcher Ryleigh Owens struck out Brittany Affolter swinging to end the threat.
Owens, who earned the win to improve to 10-6, closed the final three innings while allowing just one hit.
In the bottom of the ninth with one out and a runner on, Hatton reached on a fielder’s choice before advancing to second on a wild pitch and scored moments later when Danielle Franz lined a walk-off single up the middle to keep Lindenwood’s season alive.
It was only Franz’s 20th at bat of the season and just her 5th hit but the biggest hit by far of the season.
The Lions carried that momentum into Friday’s second elimination game against SIUE Cougars and erupted offensively in a dominant 13-5 victory.
After SIUE erased an early 3-0 deficit, Lindenwood broke the game open with a five-run fifth inning fueled by RBI walks from Karter Skillman and Franz, along with a two-run sequence sparked by a SIUE error off the bat of Madison Adams.
Crowder led the offensive explosion, finishing 3/5 with four RBIs, including a two-run triple and a two-run home run, her fifth homer of the season. Emily Geary added three hits, including two doubles and a triple, while Hatton and Madisen Noll each recorded multi-hit performances.
Geary continues to swing a hot bat as the senior is now 6/14 with five extra base hits and two runs driven in, in the tournament.
Freshman pitcher Ava Risum earned her third win of the season by allowing just two earned runs over the final 4 1/3 innings after coming in relief of Owens.
The quartet of Avery Wapp, Samantha Roulanaitis, Ryleigh Owens and Ava Risum has anchored Lindenwood’s run through the elimination bracket, delivering clutch innings time and time again and the Lions will look to lean on them with an NCAA Tournament birth on the line.
Lindenwood’s run to Championship Saturday has become a revenge tour of sorts. The Lions avenged their opening-round loss to SEMO earlier in the tournament and knocked off SIUE for the first time this season as the Cougars were the only team to win a conference on the road at the Lou Brock Sports Complex.
Now, one final challenge remains.
Standing between Lindenwood and an OVC Tournament title is the regular-season champion Eastern Illinois Panthers (35-20, 23-3 OVC), the same team that swept the Lions in an early March series.
The Lions will face the Panthers at 11 a.m. Saturday in the OVC Championship. Because the Panthers remain unbeaten in the double-elimination tournament, Lindenwood must defeat Eastern Illinois twice to capture the conference title and secure an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.
