ORLANDO, Fla. – The No. 2 UIndy softball team kept rolling at the 2024 NCAA Division II Championship Monday, earning a 1-0 win versus Lenoir-Rhyne
—the Southeast Region champs. Pitcher of the Year candidate
Kenzee Smith took a no-hitter into the seventh before recording her sixth complete-game shutout in the NCAA Tournament.
Additionally, this Greyhounds club becomes the first team in program history to hit the 60-win mark.
The Hounds are the only unbeaten team left in the top half of the
bracket. They earned a day off tomorrow and await the losers' bracket survivor on Wednesday. First pitch is set for 11 a.m. ET.
Held at Boombah-Soldiers Creek Park in Orlando, Fla., the eight-team, double-elimination championship continues through Saturday, May 25 when the national champion will be crowned.
INS & OUTS
Facing one of the best hitting lineups in the nation, Smith was impeccable in the circle. She had a prefecto working until a two-out walk in the bottom of the fifth, and it was seventh inning before the Bears managed their one and only base hit.
Smith is in the midst of one of the all-time postseason pitching runs. The Indianapolis native has tossed 52 1/3 innings since surrendering an earned run—a span that covers the entire NCAA Tournament.
UIndy scratched across the game's only run in the top of the third. With two outs and nobody on,
Emily O'Connor and
Lexy Rees went for back-to-back singles, moving the former to third base.
Braxton Downs hit a slow roller to short but beat it out for an RBI single.
INSIDE THE BOX
-Lenoir-Rhyne entered the day ranked third in Division II in both hits and home runs and ninth in slugging percentage. They finished the game 1-for-22 (.045) at the plate.
- UIndy amassed six hits, a pair of walks and a hit by pitch. O'Connor was the lone Hound with two knocks.
-Smith (39-3) is now one win shy of matching the program's single-season record.
MORE NOTES
The Hounds are making their first World Series appearance in nine years … Today marked the first-ever matchup between UIndy and Lenoir-Rhyne.
