Vikings Take Second at GPAC Softball Conference Tournament

Sioux City, Iowa ~ The Dana College softball team went 3-2 last weekend at the GPAC Conference tournament.  Dana finished second in the tournament behind champion Concordia University.  The Vikings defeated Dakota Wesleyan 8-1 in the opening game.  Cassie Lager (JR, Missouri Valley, IA) pitched a three-hitter with 11 strike outs.   Dana exploded for 12 runs in the fifth inning to erase a 1-0 deficit and advance to the winner’s bracket final against Concordia.

Northwestern had taken a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on a solo home run. The lead held until the fifth when the Vikings erupted for 12 runs against Red Raider ace Megan McHugh. Only three of the runs charged were earned as the Red Raiders committed three costly errors. Dana had seven of its nine hits in the fifth, the biggest of which were a three-run home run by Maggie Downs (JR, St. Charles, IA) and a two-run home run by Josie Barrow (JR, Woodward, IA). The Vikings’ Apryl Groteluschen (SR, Columbus, NE) was the game’s only multiple hitter with a pair of doubles. Lager held the Red Raiders to four hits in the five-inning contest to get her second pitching win of the day. Lager walked one and struck out three.

Day two of the tournament was slowed due to rain.  Instead of using four fields, the tournament was limited to one.  Dana was knocked out of the winners bracket by Concordia University 6-0 in the opening game on Saturday.  The Bulldog pitching staff limited Dana hitters to three hits.  Sarah Sempek (SR, Omaha) had the only extra base hit on the day for Dana in the first inning.  Lager went six and two-thirds inning giving up six runs and eleven hits.  Sina Davis (FR, Van Meter, IA) pitched the final third of an inning to prevent further damage. 

Dana was relegated to the losers bracket against Midland Lutheran. Coach Marcy Roff called on the freshman Davis to give the weary Viking pitching staff a break.  Davis responded by throwing a five-hit shut out over the Warriors.  Dana scored the game’s only run in the bottom of the sixth inning when Aimee Supanchick (JR, Hazard, NE) doubled with two outs and her pinch-runner, Jacque Holzer (SO, Woodbine, IA), scored on an error by the third baseman. Winning pitcher Davis made  her first start of the season and had pitched only nine innings all season entering the tourney, hurled the Vikings into the championship game. 

The Vikings advanced into the championship game against Concordia.  Dana would need to win two straight over the Bulldogs to bring home the conference title.  Dana’s thin pitching staff was not up to the test as they fell to Concordia 11-2 in the championship game.  The Bulldogs scored a convincing five-inning triumph in the GPAC Tournament title game with the help of some wildness from the Dana pitching staff. Viking pitchers Sina Davis and Cassie Lager combined for nine walks, five of them with the bases loaded to force in runs. Concordia plated four runs in the top of the first inning, all courtesy of bases loaded walks.

Dana finished the tournament with a 34-20 record.  The Vikings will play Wednesday afternoon at 1:30 against Jamestown College in the Region III tournament.  The tournament is being hosted by Dickinson State in Dickinson, North Dakota.

For more information, contact:


Shad Beam, sports information director, (402) 426-7389, sbeam@dana.edu

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Scott Guzinski, assistant Sports Information Director, (402) 426-7949, sguzinsk@dana.edu