The Winfield-Mt. Union softball team is on the diamond Thursday to open the regional tournament when they take on the New London Tigers. This game was originally scheduled for Wednesday but backed up to Thursday due to weather. The Wolves enter the game with an overall mark of 7-4 on the year. Last time out they were beaten by Wapello 1-0 in extra innings. For the year, WMU is hitting .235 as a team, led by Carlee Sloan at .342 with 13 hits, eight runs scored and three driven in. In the circle, Maddie Anderson is the Wolves ace with a 0.28 ERA, tied for the lead in class 1A in Iowa. She has a 7-4 overall record in 75 innings of work with 141 strikeouts.

New London is 7-6 on the year. Last time out they were 11-1 winners over Holy Trinity. For the year the Tigers are hitting .295 as a team, led by Kara Krieger at .361 with 13 hits, 14 RBI and six runs scored. In the circle, New London has a team ERA of 3.87 led by Ely Manning with a 3.71 ERA, and 6-5 overall record in 62 and a third innings. This week, WMU head coach Walt Jackson talked about the keys to a possible deep playoff run for the Lady Wolves. “Timely hitting is most key. We have to get hits strung together. With Maddie on the mound, we don’t have to score much but we need to push some runs across the plate. The games that we have lost this year have been by an average of one run per game.”

These two teams met in June with WMU taking a 3-0 win. Action begins tonight at 7p.m. in Winfield.