UW-Stevens Point had an impressive start to its NCAA Division III softball regional appearance on Thursday, but ran into the nation's top-ranked team later in the day and will have to battle through the loser's bracket to stay alive in Decorah, Iowa.

The Pointers opened the day with an 8-2 win over Wartburg, but then fell victim to St. Thomas' 36th straight win as the Tommies posted a 6-2 triumph. UW-Stevens Point faces Gustavus Adolphus in an elimination game on Friday at noon. The winner will face either Webster (Mo.) or Wartburg at 4 p.m. The Pointers are now 33-9 overall and need to win six straight games over the next three days to claim a berth to the Division III World Series.

“It's going to take a tremendous effort over the next three days, but this team has been through a lot and they know what they need to do,” Pointers' coach Ann Munzenmaier said. “If we just keep our same approach and stay focused, we'll see what happens.”

UW-Stevens Point's day got off to a hot start as Mandy Jellish (Kaukauna/Kaukauna) led off the opening inning against Wartburg (27-7) with a triple and scored on a two-out home run by Korryn Brooks (Stevens Point/SPASH). The Pointers added two more runs in the third inning with three straight singles by Jackie Berger (Bonduel/Bonduel), Laura Van Abel and Brooks before Stephanie Anderson (Milwaukee/King) hit a deep fly ball that was misplayed to allow a run to score. Danielle Ashbeck (Wabeno/Wabeno) blasted a two-run homer in the fifth and Jellish and Berger hit back-to-back doubles in the sixth.

Anderson pitched the first three innings before giving way to Hope Krause (Mishicot/Mishicot), who earned the win by throwing the last four frames. The Pointers were one strike away from winning by the eight-run rule in the sixth inning, but Wartburg's Ali Hartzler hit a two-run homer to extend the game and avoid just its second shutout of the year. Jellish, Berger and Brooks each had two hits for the Pointers, who had six of their nine hits for extra bases and took advantage of five Knights' errors.

“I thought our hitting approach was very solid in the first five innings, but we seemed to stray from that near the end of the first game and throughout the second game,” Munzenmaier said.

In the second game, the Tommies (42-2) took advantage of a dropped fly ball and throwing error on the same play to score a first inning run without a hit. Carrie Embree added a solo homer in the third and St. Thomas added another run in the fourth when Linh Tran scored as the Pointers tagged out another runner in a rundown. Morgan Betker ripped a three-run homer in the fifth following an error for a 6-0 lead.
“Our pitchers really did a nice job today,” said Munzenmaier, who faced her collegiate coach from St. Mary's and current Tommies' coach, John Tschida, for the first time. “Unfortunately, we had some lapses defensively and you just can't do that at this level.”

Van Abel drove in a run on an infield single in the sixth and the Pointers loaded the bases with none out in the seventh, but settled for one run on a sacrifice fly by Chelsea McIlquham (Sun Prairie/Sun Prairie). Van Abel was two-for-three and extended her hitting streak to 19 games, while Stephanie Moores was three-for-three for St. Thomas.