Illinois Wesleyan opens NCAA softball regional play in Waverly
Illinois Wesleyan opens against host Wartburg in Waverly, with Gianna Certa and a 28-13 Titans team chasing another deep NCAA run.
Illinois Wesleyan will open NCAA Division III softball regional play against host Wartburg at 1:30 p.m. Thursday in Waverly, Iowa, and the matchup gives the Titans a clear path to make noise right away. Gianna Certa, who went 7-0 with a 0.71 ERA in College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin play and was named the league’s Pitcher of the Year, heads a Bloomington team that won its third straight CCIW tournament title May 9 and enters the regional at 28-13.
The four-team, three-day Waverly Regional is being played at Lynes Field, with University of Redlands and Dominican opening the bracket at 11 a.m. Thursday. The winners move into a 11 a.m. Friday game, while the first elimination game follows at 2:30 p.m. and another game is scheduled for 4 p.m. The regional championship is set for 11 a.m. Saturday. For Illinois Wesleyan, the first test is also the biggest: Wartburg is 31-10, is hosting its first NCAA regional since 2003 and is making its fifth straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
The Titans have enough postseason history to know the road ahead can get crowded fast. This is Illinois Wesleyan’s 22nd NCAA Tournament appearance, and the program owns a 57-47 all-time tournament record with five trips to the Women’s College World Series, in 2003, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. Last season, the Titans advanced to the Super Regional round after winning the Bloomington regional, a run that added to the expectation around a team that dominated the CCIW at 15-1 and claimed the league’s automatic bid as the only conference team in the 64-team NCAA field.
The bracket is loaded beyond Wartburg. Redlands enters at 38-4 riding a 28-game winning streak, while Dominican is 29-16 after winning the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference tournament. Illinois Wesleyan has already seen six teams in this year’s tournament field and is 5-7 against that group, including Wartburg, Belhaven, Calvin, Illinois College, Simpson and UW-Oshkosh. That familiarity, along with Certa’s form and Tiffany Prager’s coaching staff that includes Nikki Miller, Kimmy Hassel, Bob Grimes and Mike Kuhn, gives the Titans a real chance to push deeper again if they can clear Thursday’s first hurdle.
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