(UW-OSHKOSH ATHLETICS) LOUISVILLE, KY – Sydney Nemetz, Sydney Rau, and Sophie Wery were all named National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Region VIII on Friday afternoon (May 16).
Nemetz collected her second consecutive first team honor, Wery earned second team honors for the second time in three years, and Rau was named all-region for the first time of her career with a second team nod.
Nemetz owns a 12-3 record across 93 innings pitched with 19 starts this season. She has a 1.20 earned run average and a 1.01 WHIP with eight complete games, five shutouts, has struck out 79 batters and holds opponents to a .207 batting average. Her ERA ranks third in the WIAC behind fellow Titans Brianna Bougie and Grace Nardi and 19th in Division III and her 5.12 hits allowed per seven innings is 40th in the nation.
On April 12, Nemetz became just the third Titan to reach 400 career strikeouts as Oshkosh beat UW-La Crosse is both games of its WIAC-opening series. Her 419 career strikeouts rank second in school history, 11th in WIAC history, and 34th among active Division III pitchers.
Wery, the WIAC’s all-time leader in RBIs, is hitting .365 with a .977 on-base plus slugging percentage, 46 hits, 12 doubles, a triple, three home runs, 11 walks, 16 runs, and 31 RBIs this season. The four-year catcher has caught nine runners stealing this season across all 44 of Oshkosh’s games.
Wery became the conference’s RBI leader during the WIAC Tournament championship game against UW-Platteville on May 10. She tied UW-Whitewater’s Suzanne Gerisch atop the league’s record book with her 170th RBI on a bunt that scored Cali Divito in the third inning before breaking the record with an RBI double in the sixth. She sits eighth among active Division III players with 171 RBIs.
Rau paces UW-Oshkosh with a .402 batting average, 29 runs, and a .460 on-base percentage while adding 41 hits including a double, two triples, and an inside the park home run against the Milwaukee School of Engineering in the UW-Oshkosh Rec Plex Dome on March 8. She has walked 11 times, has struck out only nine times and recorded 29 runs and 15 RBIs in 35 games in center field.
Rau has laid down a team best eight sacrifice bunts this season and successfully stolen eight bases on 10 attempts. She opened the season with a hit against Concordia University Wisconsin on February 22 and recorded at least one hit in each of the next 12 games for a total of 21 hits, the longest hit streak on the team this season before adding another seven-game streak between March 27 and April 9.
The WIAC Tournament (presented by Culver’s) champions, the Titans earned the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship and were selected as one of the 16 regional tournament hosts for the third straight year. They opened their 12th trip to the national tournament with a 6-0 win over Concordia University Wisconsin on Thursday (May 15) before falling to UW-Stevens Point, 1-0, in their first game on Friday. Oshkosh was leading Concordia Wisconsin, 2-1, in the fourth inning of Friday’s second elimination game when it was suspended due to poor weather conditions. The Titans and Falcons will resume play at 11 a.m. on Saturday (May 17) and the winner will face UW-Stevens Point in the regional championship.