SMU Fastpitch Softball

RoadTo Wartburg

The Sabres (21-13) are making their second straight regional tournament appearance, after winning the Lake Michigan Conference tournament title — and the conference's automatic berth — with a 4-1 win over Edgewood.

Pre-TournamentNotes

The Sabres have won three straight and five of their last seven. Those two losses came against UW-Stevens Point — Marian's opening-round regional foe — by scores of 1-0 and 8-0. … In their regular-season series against UW-Stevens Point, Pointer pitcher Karen Guckenberger pitched a one-hitter in game one and Nicki Bertram pitched a two-hitter in the second game. … Offensively, Marian is led by Rachel Schulze and Cindy Berres, who are hitting .402 and .393 respectively. As a team, the Sabres bring a .301 batting average into the regional tournament. … Berres is the team's offensive leader in virtually every offensive category, including hits (46), runs scored (31), doubles (9), triples (11), home runs (2), RBIs (22), total bases (83) and slugging percentage (.709). … Kari Moore has done the brunt of the pitching duties, tossing 145.2 innings, compiling a 14-7 record and a 1.97 ERA. … Berres, Jess Anders, Mooreand catcher Alissa DeWar were all named All-Lake Michigan Conference. ... Lexie Ellis and Schulze were named honorable mention. ... Berres was named the LMC Player of the Year. …The Sabres have outscored their opponents 167-120, and hold a scoring advantage in every inning but the sixth, where they've been outscored 23-9. … Marian's longest winning streak of the season has been nine games (snapped by a 3-1 loss to Carthage on April 22), and the Sabres haven't lost more than four in a row. … Six of the Sabres' 21 wins have come by shutout.