In 4 days, Danielle Stiene pitched complete games in all 4 tourney matches, as women's softball followed up their MAC regular season conference title by winning the MAC Tourney for the second time, defeating NIU 2-0. In the tourney, Stiene pitched 27 innings, allowed 1 run, 11 hits, striking out 31.

Congratulations ladies and best of luck in the NCAA tourney.

It's not uncommon when a team has one ace substantially better than anyone else on the roster. Steine pitched 212 2/3 of 345 1/3 innings for Ohio this year, so about two-thirds of the time. Four different players pitched. There are quite a few doubleheaders in softball, and typically a different pitcher starts each of those, but not always. In the MAC tournament, when a team sometimes has to play twice in a day, they may go with their No. 2 pitcher for the second one but then go back to the No. 1 during the game either to try to stay in it or close it out. Soreness typically isn't an issue with the underhand motion but fatigue can be a factor.

Her third no-hitter in her career, too. What was fun about her is with each start, she looked stronger instead of showing fatigue.

She threw 89 pitches yesterday. Which is amazing.

Steine did not start either game against James Madison during the season. She did finish off the 9-7 win in 8 innings, pitching 4 2/3 scoreless innings, giving up just 1 hit and 1 walk with 7 strikeouts.

It seems like a decent draw for Ohio. A winnable first game. Tennessee is the #10 overall seed in the tournament so the Bobcats didn't get one of the top few teams in their regional.

She went four games in four days in the MAC Tournament, and she looked stronger with each outing. I think she will be just fine!

Ohio lost 2-1 to James Madison. Tennessee eased past Monmouth 9-0, so the Bobcats get Monmouth in an elimination game at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. Winner of that game plays again at 5 p.m. vs. loser of Tennessee-James Madison.

And Ohio is into the regional final against Tennessee, beating James Madison 7-3. Down 2-0, the Bobcats scored six times in the fifth inning. Mikayla Cooper doubled in a run. Morgan Geno's two-run home run gave them a 3-2 lead, Natalie Alvarez hit a two-run home run, and Kenzie Brunswick hit an RBI triple. Cooper added a sac fly in the 6th. Steine was the winning pitcher in both games, though she pitched just a total of 6 1/3 innings, I believe. She pitched the first four against Monmouth and the final 2 1/3 against JMU. Madi McCrady pitched extremely well. It will be a big challenge tomorrow. The Bobcats need to beat the Volunteers twice, starting at 1 p.m.

FANTASTIC!!!! GO BOBCATS!!!

Tennessee won the regional with a 5-1 victory against Ohio. The Bobcats took a 1-0 lead but gave up four unearned runs in the game. They also had a couple of outs on the bases that limited scoring chances. It would have been interesting to see how it would have played out without the mistakes, but what a great season it was for Ohio anyway. The Bobcats finished 40-17 and went 31-5 in their last 36 games. They dominated the MAC (20-3) and won the first two NCAA Tournament games in school history, including one against a top 25 ranked team, James Madison. By making the regional final, Ohio was one of the final 32 teams left playing today and I think no doubt the team was of that quality. The team had four seniors, including three starters. MAC Pitcher of the Year Danielle Steine was a huge one, and Taylor Saxton and Mikayla Cooper also were starters, while Haley Adams was a reserve. It seems the program that has been built is one that will give them more chances like this. The team had some really good freshmen and younger players. It was a great season that maybe sets the stage for something even better in the future.

JMU was ranked 23rd in the USA Today poll. We played them 4 times this year, splitting with them. Our RPI was 55 going into the tourney. And we did shutout No. 30 OSU. I would hope, given their strong end of the year performance, that they would at least garner some points in the final USA rankings.

Great season OHIO!