Box Score 1 | Box Score 2  BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – It looked for a while Saturday like Augustana would take host Illinois Wesleyan to a winner-take-all game at the CCIW Softball Tournament, but the 12th-ranked Titans (37-5) rallied for a 10-9 win to capture the tournament title and with it, the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The 19th-rated Vikings, 33-11 on the year, eliminated Carthage with a 4-0 win in the first game of the day and now await a possible NCAA at-large bid .
 
AUGUSTANA 4, CARTHAGE 0
 
Senior right-hander Sarah Hintz (Le Roy HS, Le Roy, Ill.) threw her third complete game in two days, spinning a six-hit shutout to defeat Carthage 4-0 in Augustana's first game of the day.
 
The Vikings gave Hintz all the offense she would need in their first at-bat. Juniors Laura Behnke (St. Francis HS, Roselle, Ill.) and Jenna Teson (Jacobs HS, Algonquin, Ill.) started the top of the first with a single to center and a base-on-balls, respectively. A Krista Watson (Coal City HS, Coal City, Ill.) sacrificed moved them to second and third and senior Jaime Rehmert (Sterling HS, Sterling, Ill.) scored both runners with a double down the left field line.
 
Singles by sophomores Ashley Anderson (Sherrard HS, Viola, Ill.) and Jennifer Gray (Lincoln-Way East HS, Mokena, Ill.) and junior Chelsea Lavin (Downers Grove South HS, Downers Grove, Ill.), along with a Lady Red error, produced another run in the third.
 
Hintz helped her own cause with a leadoff double in the fourth and came around to score Augustana's final run when Behnke pulled an RBI double down the right field line.
 
Viking ace Hintz moved to 17-4 on the year. She scattered six hits and issued three walks while fanning seven. Behnke, Anderson and Gray each had a pair of base hits.
 
ILLINOIS WESLEYAN 10, AUGUSTANA 9
 
Needing to win to force the "if necessary" game, Augustana jumped on Titan ace Molly McCready for eight runs in the first two innings.
 
Anderson singled in Teson with an unearned run in the first. Then, after IWU's Sara Daley gave the Titans the lead with a two-run homer off Anderson in the bottom half, the Vikings exploded for seven runs in the top of the second. Freshman catcher Brittany Kellett (The Woodlands HS, The Woodlands, Texas) led off with her first career home run and after a Gray bunt single, Behnke hit her sixth round-tripper of the season to give Augustana a 4-2 lead. Three straight base-on-balls brought Lavin to the plate and she delivered a two-run double to left center. The final two runs of the frame scored on an IWU error and the Vikings led 8-2.
 
It didn't take the Titans long to start whittling away at the deficit, however. They scored three in the second, with Daley's two-run single the big blow.  IWU took advantage of five singles, a walk and an error in the fourth to take the lead with five more runs. Kyley McKeown singled in the go-ahead run and Hannah Bowen's RBI single provided important insurance.
 
Anderson got Augustana to within a run in the sixth, with her first homer of the year, but Jenna Noland came out of the Titan pen and struck out four of the six batters she faced to close things out.
 
Anderson suffered her seventh loss against 11 wins this year. She went three innings before being relieved by junior Christie Wiersema (Morrison HS, Morrison, Ill.). Hintz, who threw 24 innings this weekend, came on for three innings, surrendering just one run, which was unearned. Anderson was also 2-for-3 with two RBI at the plate, while Lavin and Behnke each drove in a pair as well.