The Saint Louis Billikens ended the 2024 season with a 31-22 record. (Photo courtesy: SLU Athletics)
| NCAA Softball | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint Louis (31-22) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| Dayton (33-19) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | X | 3 | 5 | 0 |
Nora Nichols
Staff Writer
BRONX, NY — The Saint Louis University softball team fell behind early and could never comeback in Saturday’s Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament championship game. The Billikens could only manage three hits and committed two errors in eventually became a 3-0 loss to Dayton.
The Flyers, who also won the Atlantic 10 regular season title, are now 33-19 and will receive an automatic bid into the NCAA National Tournament, which will begin next weekend. The loss ended Saint Louis’ 2024 season. The Billikens finished with a 31-22 record.
On Saturday, Dayton scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning off SLU starter Isabel Royle and added another run in the sixth. Two of those runs were unearned and came by way of defensive miscues by the Billikens.
SLU catcher and grad student Kelsey Etling had two hits in what would be her final game as a Billiken. Both of those hits were apart of SLU’s best scoring chances in the game.
She led off the top of the second with a hit and moved to second when teammate Chloe Rhine, who also had a hit in the game, drew a walk with one out. Unfortunately, neither runner moved as the next two batters made outs and SLU didn’t score.
In the sixth inning, SLU’s Jane Kaniecki drew a two-out walk and Etling followed with a hit to put two runners on. But once again, the Billikens were unable to score against Dayton’s tough pitching.
Rhine, Kaniecki and Royle were selected to the All-Tournament team.
In four games, Rhine was 4-for-8 with a home run, five RBIs, two doubles, a sacrifice, a 1.125 slugging percentage and a .636 on-base percentage; Kaniecki was 5-for-11 with three RBIs, a triple, a double, a .727 slugging percentage and a .571 on-base percentage; and Royle posted a win, a save and a 2.42 ERA while striking out 14 in 17 1/3 innings.
The 31 wins for SLU were the second most all time in school history.
SCORING SUMMARY
| Logo | Team | Inning | Play Description | SLU | DAY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | DAYTON | 1st | WONG, C. grounded out to 2b, RBI (0-2 FK); KAPSIMALIS advanced to second; BAILEY, K. advanced to third; SCHUTTER, E. scored. | 0 | 1 |
| DAYTON | 1st | GRACE, M. singled down the lf line, RBI, advanced to second on the throw (1-0 B); KAPSIMALIS advanced to third, out at home lf to c; BAILEY, K. scored, unearned. | 0 | 2 |
| DAYTON | 6th | GRACE, M. singled to center field, RBI (2-1 BKB); KAPSIMALIS scored, unearned. | 0 | 3 |