Late rally gives Mustangs a win in tournament opener

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- After being held hitless for three innings and scoreless for six, third-seeded Mount Mercy put together a two-out rally and came back to defeat sixth-seeded MidAmerica Nazarene, 2-1, in game four of the Heart of America Athletic Conference Softball Championship Thursday night at Busse Field.

The Pioneers (28-21) broke up a pitcher's duel between Alexis Wilds (10-8) and the Heart of America Pitcher of the Year, Jayna Witzany (21-3), in the top of the fifth inning. Alli Vanlanker's sacrifice fly scored Rilee Slycord to give MidAmerica Nazarene a 1-0 lead. It stayed that way until there were two outs in the bottom of the seventh.

Sam Lee singled to lead off the frame and Michelle Mack's sacrifice bunt moved her to second. With Mount Mercy down to it's final out, Allie Poston singled to center to score Lee with the tying run. Pinch-hitter Alyssa Niketopolous, on the first pitch she saw all night, drilled a run-scoring single to right-center and the Mustangs had the walk-off win.

Lee finished 2-for-3 with a run scored. Rylee Goodfellow, Ulatowski, Poston, and Niketopolous had Mount Mercy's other four hits. Witzany, named the Heart Pitcher of the Year earlier on Thursday, surrendered one earned run on five hits with 12 strikeouts and two bases on balls.

Mount Mercy (33-17) avoided the dreaded consolation bracket and will face second-seeded Grand View (42-7) on Friday in game eight of the tournament at 2:30 pm.