WPU Closes 2026 with Losses at Heart Championship

Cedar Rapids--The Statesmen softball team saw its 2026 campaign come to a close Thursday as it fell twice at the Heart of America Athletic Conference Championship.

No. 5 seed William Penn (27-21) opened the Championship with a 4-1 loss to No. 4 Benedictine before being eliminated by a 10-2 loss to No. 8 Baker in five innings.

Benedictine 4, WPU 1

The Ravens (33-16) opened the scoring with two runs in the bottom of the first inning.

The navy and gold were kept off the board until the fourth frame, but Laila Smith (Jr., Olympia, Wash., Elementary Education) closed the gap to one with a solo home run over the center field fence.

Unfortunately, WPU could draw no closer, while BC added two insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth.

Both teams were limited to just four hits in the pitchers' duel.  Tori Smith (Jr., Olympia, Wash., Secondary Education) kept her squad in the game with a solid complete-game effort.  The junior permitted only three earned runs, while striking out two and walking four.

Baker 10, WPU 2

William Penn was even through four frames of the season finale, but the top of the fifth did the squad in and ended its year.

BU (27-22) struck first with a run in the top of the second, while WPU answered with one of its own in the bottom of the fourth.  Following singles by Tori Smith and Austin Hitchner (Fr., McKenna, Wash., Secondary Education), Mckenna Vasser (Rochester, Wash., Business Management) drove in Hitcher on a one-bagger through the left side.

Unfortunately, the Wildcats could not be tamed in the top of the fifth as they tallied eight hits and a walk en route to nine runs.

Leah Conlon (Fr., Sioux City, Iowa, Exercise Science) singled up the middle to plate Laila Gutierrez (Jr., Seminole, Texas, Business Management), but that is all the navy and gold could muster in their final at-bats of the spring.

Conlon topped WPU with two hits, while the team was outhit 11-6 overall.

For her efforts, Marin Frazee (Jr., Sioux City, Iowa, Exercise Science) was named to the all-tournament team.

"Obviously, the season did not end the way we wanted here at the tournament, but I think we just ran out of gas," Head Coach Laura North said.  "It was a great season.  We were picked to finish eighth, and we ended up fifth.  We outperformed expectations and worked really hard to put a good, competitive team on the field.  We accomplished and surpassed a lot of our internal goals, but still have things we want to improve upon."

"We have pretty much our entire starting lineup returning next year, so we will look to build off of what we accomplished this year and raise the stakes," North added.  "We will miss our seniors; we had a lot of tears after the loss, but that is how it is supposed to be.  If we were not sad that it is over, we did not do it right."