LONDON, Ont. - The Western Mustangs women's softball team rolled to a first-place finish during a round-robin tourney on Sept. 6 before rain Sunday Sept. 7 washed out the playoff rounds. 

Western, by virtue of winning the round-robin, won this year’s tourney which featured Genesee College (New York State),  St. Clair College (Windsor) and Chinguacousy (all-star team from Toronto).  

The Mustangs went 3-0 for the weekend, defeating Chinguacousy 7-4 and both St. Clair and Genesee by identical 8-1 scores. 

Both the second and third games were shortened by the run rule (game ends after 5 innings if either team is leading by 7 or more runs). 

Leading Western offensively were Jess Doerr (Walkerton, Ont.) with two triples and four singles, Julianne Proniuk (Brampton, Ont.) with four singles and a triple, and Em Cornelius (London, Ont.) with four singles. 

Western started quickly in all three games scoring 2, 3, and 5 runs in the first inning of their games, collecting 6 triples (27 total hits in only 14 innings played), and holding off their opposition with stingy defence (1 error) and solid pitching (21 strikeouts). 

Winning pitchers were Kristina Lemon (London, Ont.), Doerr and Cassy Harrison (St. Williams, Ont.).

The Mustangs (24-3 in 2007) return a quality nucleus of 10 players from last year’s conference championship winning team and have added likely their finest recruiting class ever.  Several of these freshmen are expected to contribute right away. 

The regular season opens this weekend, Sept. 13 and 14, with double-headers against Carleton on Saturday Sept. 13 (3 and 5 p.m.) and Ottawa on Sunday Sept. 14 (11 a.m. and 1 p.m.) at Stronach Park (on Sandford between Huron and Cheapside).