Titans Ranked 12th In NFCA Preseason Softball Poll
The UW-Oshkosh softball team will enter the 2022 season ranked 12th in the country by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association after winning the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title and advancing to the NCAA Division III World Series a year ago.
Last season UW-Oshkosh compiled a 29-13 record on the way to clinching a share of the WIAC regular season title, earning the league postseason championship and sweeping through the Eau Claire Regional as the top seed to secure the program's first World Series appearance since 1988.
The Titans, making their third NCAA postseason trip in the last four tournaments, picked up their first World Series victory with a 7-1 decision over Tufts University (Mass.) and finished the 2021 season ranked sixth in the NFCA poll.
DePauw University (Ind.) tops the 2022 NFCA preseason poll. The Tigers (40-5 record in 2021), who reached the semifinals of the 2021 World Series, are followed in the poll by defending national champion Virginia Wesleyan University (46-6-1) in second, 2021 runner-up Texas Lutheran University (36-6) in third, East Texas Baptist University (33-7) in fourth and Birmingham-Southern College (Ala.) (33-8) in fifth.
Rounding out the 2022 NFCA preseason top 11 are Eastern Connecticut State University (32-4) in sixth, Tufts University (21-7) in seventh, Salisbury University (Md.) (25-9) in eighth, University of Rochester (N.Y.) (35-10) in ninth, The College of New Jersey (26-5) in 10th and Milwaukee School of Engineering (35-10) in 11th.
UW-Oshkosh, the only WIAC program to receive votes in the initial 2022 NFCA poll, is scheduled to play one team ranked in the preseason top 25. The Titans will battle seventh-ranked Tufts University on March 25 in Clermont, Fla.
The Titans open the 2022 season with four games against Minnesota opponents Feb. 26-27 in Mankato, Minn., beginning with College of Saint Benedict (26-7) and Gustavus Adolphus College (17-17) on Feb. 26. UW-Oshkosh, which conducts its home opener March 5 against Lawrence University at the UW-Oshkosh Rec Plex, is set to play 25 of its 40 regular season games against teams that had at least a .500 winning percentage last season.
UW-Oshkosh ninth-year head coach Scott Beyer welcomes back 10 letterwinners from last year's squad that ranked ninth nationally with a program-record .977 fielding percentage. Beyer owns a 195-94 record at the helm of the Titans, who also won the 2017 La Crosse Regional title and reached the 2018 NCAA postseason. Beyer, along with assistants Alyssa Doomis and Kaitlyn Krol, were voted the 2021 WIAC Coaching Staff of the Year.
Hannah Ritter, a 2021 NFCA Third Team All-American, and reigning WIAC Pitcher of Year Maddie Fink headline the returning Titans. Ritter paced UW-Oshkosh last season with a .469 batting average, a .497 on-base percentage, a .566 slugging percentage, a school-record 67 hits, 11 doubles, 25 runs batted in and 81 total bases. Ritter's batting average was fourth-best in program history.
Fink, who pitched every inning of the last eight games during UW-Oshkosh's remarkable run to the World Series, went 21-5 with a 1.89 earned run average, two saves, 20 complete games, six shutouts and 123 strikeouts in 170.1 innings. Fink's 21 wins were the second-most by a Titan.
UW-Oshkosh also brings back letterwinners Gabby Buikema, Emily Cliver, Mia Crotty, Ana Iliopoulos, Zoe Malone, Morgan Rau, Sydney Rau and Grace Stevens.
Crotty was second on the team a year ago with four wins and 66.2 innings in the Titans pitcher's circle while Cliver batted .310 with nine doubles, Buikema got on base at a .359 clip, Morgan Rau hit a team-leading four home runs and drove in 20 runs, and Iliopoulos scored 18 runs and drove in another 18.
UW-Oshkosh, which clinched its fourth WIAC regular season title and second league postseason championship last season, has the conference's longest active streak of 20+ win full seasons at 17 in a row.