Softball ends season in SLIAC Tournament; five Griffins garner postseason accolades

St. Charles, Mo. - After a dreary week, Fontbonne University softball took to Lindenwood University's turf field on a Friday with a clear sky despite strong winds. The Griffins opened St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament play as the No. 4-seed against No. 1-seeded Westminster College.

Westminster's defense took away several hard hits from the Griffins who mustered their first hit of the day in the fourth inning and was held to just one hit until the seventh inning. The 7-0 loss for Fontbonne was their sixth shutout of the year and second shutout by a conference opponent.

In game two, Fontbonne took a 2-0 lead in the first inning as Maddy Strickland brought in two runs before getting tagged out at second as she tried to take an extra base on the throw home. Fontbonne was limited to one extra-base hit over the two games until Strickland's solo home run gave Fontbonne a 3-1 lead over Webster in the sixth inning. In the fourth, Webster loaded the bases with just one out but the Griffins eliminated a run on a fielder's choice to home. Strickland got out of the jam on a strikeout followed by a flyout to right field where Emily Smith eliminated a Gorlok scoring threat.

With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, a fielding error gave Webster hope. Down 3-1 the Gorloks tied the game to force extra innings. After a scoreless top half of the eighth, the Griffins committed another error, which allowed Webster to continue their season on a walk-off bases-loaded sacrifice fly.

Strickland took both losses as the Griffins finished 13-23 on the season. In the two games, Fontbonne turned three double plays, two on lineouts and two against Westminster. Emelia Modglin and Strickland both went three-for-seven and averaged .429 on the day. Strickland's 0.857 slugging percentage was a team-high as she also tallied all three runs batted in for the Griffins during the tournament.

Between Fontbonne's games, Greenville defeated Webster 4-1 and the conference handed out their postseason awards.

Postseason Accolades (Conference-only Statistics)

Representing Fontbonne on the All-sportsmanship team was sophomore Kayla Winkler.

Garnering first-team All-SLIAC were Emelia Modglin and Courtney Kedroski. Modglin led Fontbonne with a .453 conference-only batting average as Kedroski was second (.415). Kedroski's .736 slugging percentage was a team-high against conference opponents while Modglin's .660 was third and her .524 on-base percentage led the Griffins.

Representing Fontbonne on the second-team All-SLIAC was center fielder Maddie Cooksey. Cooksey held a .893 fielding percentage in the outfield and averaged .323 at the plate with a .581 slugging percentage. Cooksey tied with Kedroski for a team-high 20 runs scored.

Diamond Thomas took home third-team All-SLIAC honors as a utility player. Thomas has played first base, pitched and even took to the outfield a couple of times this year. She is five-for-five in stolen bases and maintained a fielding percentage of 0.958. Thomas went 3-3 against SLIAC opponents in the circle, striking out 23 batters with a 2.89 earned run average.

Look for a season recap to come later.The full list of SLIAC All-Conference honors can be found here.

You can follow along with the SLIAC Tournament, which the Griffins are hosting, here. Westminster and Greenville won both of their games today and will square off at 2 p.m. at ABC Ball Park Saturday.