The Aurora University softball team entered Championship Sunday of the 2015 NCAA Division III Pella Regional needing one win against Central College, the host school of the regional. AU fell in game one 2-1 to force an if necessary game which AU dropped 10-4 to finish the Spartans 2015 season with a 37-8 overall record.

Game One
Central 2  Aurora 1
In a battle of two pitchers looking to move their teams on to the NCAA Super Regional, all the games scoring came in one inning as both AU's Vanessa Hartzell and the Central pitcher battled out of numerous jams along the way.

In the second inning, the Spartans strung together four straight two out singles to score one run with Mandey Shrader singling to score Taylor Moore with Megan Nerger and Lauren Huebner also collecting singles. But the Spartans would leave the bases loaded, which would prove costly later.

In the bottom half of the inning, Central pushed across two runs on four hits against Hartzell with the two runs holding up for the victory. Hartzell would work out of numerous jams though as Central put runners on in all six innings they batted including also leaving the bases loaded in the third. AU senior Natalie Zanella came on to throw the sixth inning.

Shrader finished the game four for four with a run batted in.

Game Two
Central 10  Aurora 4
Just as they had done throughout the first game, Central put runners on base in the first inning, scoring once off Zanella who was able to get out of the early trouble, stranding two.

The Spartans threatened in the second, as Amie Raynor and Vanessa Wegner both reached and found themselves on second and third with one out but a pair of ground outs left them stranded.

In the third, Central scored four runs on five hits off Zanella who was then lifted for Hartzell who was able to get out with no further damage.  Trailing 5-0, the Spartans went to work immediately to cut into the deficit. Shrader led off with a single and with one out, Larkin Langston reached on an error and Steph Starr walked to load the bases. Raynor then walked to score Shrader, Wegner reached on an infield single to score Langston and Moore hit a sarifice fly to score Starr and AU trailed by two at 5-3..

Central looked to be on the verge of answering the Spartans in the fourth but Hartzell got out of another bases loaded jam.  After a scoreless bottom of the fourth and top of the fifth, AU went back to work in the bottom of the fifth. Starr led off with a single and eventually scored on a ground out by Moore. At the end of five innings, AU trailed by one, 5-4.

In the final two innings the AU defense had their struggles, committing three errors as Central scored three runs in the sixth on one hit and one AU error with a walk and hit by pitch mixed in and in the seventh Central scored two more runs with a walk and two errors on no hits doing the damage.

The five runs in the final two innings proved to much for the Spartans to overcome as they fell by the final score of 10-4.

With the pair of losses, the Spartan softball team finishes the 2015 season with a 37-8 overall record and were Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference regular season and tournament championship.

Three Spartans, Shrader, Harztell and Starr were selected to the Pella Regional All-Tournament Team following their performances in the four games AU played with the Spartans going 2-2 over the three day tournament.