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Apr. 10—MITCHELL — The Dakota Wesleyan University softball team won a program-record 34 games last season.
And then their coach Tommy Downs left to become the University of Sioux Falls' new softball coach.
In college sports today, that's usually a bad sign. Athletes frequently pick a school because of a coach and their philosophy, and with transferring as easy as ever, continuity between coaches doesn't always happen.
But the 2026 edition of the Tigers are showing it's the players who make the biggest difference, and the DWU softball program is soaring once again thanks to the players who remained committed to the program.
Under first-year head coach Stephen Oswald Jr., the Tigers have a record of 28-11 and an impressive 11-1 Great Plains Athletic Conference league mark, with 10 wins in a row ahead of a Saturday doubleheader at Doane.
Of DWU's 12 leading hitters from 2025, nine of them are back this season. The other three were seniors that graduated. DWU also brought back their top three pitchers from a season ago. Nobody transferred away, the core stayed intact and the Tigers' turnaround is continuing to build.
"It's no credit to me, truthfully. I got hired pretty late in late July," Oswald said. "Talking to the girls, a big thing was the senior leadership and the older players, they talked to the incoming recruits and everybody said, 'Hey, we want to stay together as a team,' because they already loved each other that much as a family, and we've only grown in that. It's been awesome. ... They want to be here, they want to be in Mitchell, they want to be at Dakota Wesleyan."
DWU standout pitcher Alison Ernsberger said there was never much concern about who the university would hire as a new coach. She said the belief among the players was all they needed.
"We were just thinking the whole time, 'Well, it doesn't really matter who our next coach is because we know that we're so close and such a tight-knit group,'" Ernsberger recalled of the coaching change period. "We kind of let Ozzie know that when he came in, like, 'Hey, we're all good and we're all close and very well connected, so there's no need to worry about that or trying to build a new team.' We picked it up right there and went forward."
Oswald previously coached softball at Mount Marty and most recently at Ohio Dominican University but he's a head coach for the first time with the Tigers. He said he stepped into an advantageous situation with a strong team culture already in place, something his players have worked hard to foster.
"We lost some crucial players last year, players that were good seniors and just a big part of the team with a lot of heart," senior catcher Jordyn Blogg said. "But there's girls that can fill those roles. We've got plenty of freshmen that came up, we've got transfers and there's no problem filling those roles. The coaching switch, I mean, I thought it was for the better. Coach (Oswald), he's big on faith, he's big on family and that's two big things that we love on this team."
DWU is hitting .313 as a team, with seven players that have extensive playing time and a batting average of at least .300 or better. Alessandra Ciurca is hitting a team-best .385 with a .477 on-base percentage, plus 18 stolen bases, while Macy Moore has a team-best six home runs, 43 runs scored and is hitting .383. Moore is tied with Liliana Arreola with a team-leading 31 RBIs, and Arreola is hitting .347, and Ashlen Johnson has 26 RBIs and 21 extra-base hits, including five home runs. As a team, DWU is No. 2 in the GPAC in home runs (34) and extra-base hits (122).
"We've harped on the fact that there's three parts of the game," Oswald said. "There's offense, there's defense, and there's pitching. And any given day, we can perform in all three and I think there's always room to improve in all three."
The Tigers pitching staff has lowered their team earned-run average to 3.25, led by two key starters with Alison Ernsberger and Madalyn Nachtigall. Ernsberger, who was the 2025 GPAC freshman of the year and a two-time reigning GPAC pitcher of the week, is 11-6 with a 1.98 ERA and 116 strikeouts in 106 innings pitched. Nachtigall is 10-2 in the circle with a 3.60 ERA and 62 strikeouts in 83 2/3 innings. Mitchell product Kierstyn Krcil has been the No. 3 starter with a 4-3 record and 25 strikeouts in 42 2/3 innings.
Oswald pointed to a stretch in late March in which DWU scored 48 runs in a four-game span, including a 19-18 win over College of Saint Mary on March 27. A few days earlier, DWU won a pair of extra-inning games 3-2 over Hastings in which defense and pitching were at a premium.
"The pitching has been very consistent, the defense has been improving a bunch, and the hitting has been really kicking butt lately," Oswald said. "I think what it comes down to is just playing confidently, and that's what they're doing. They are playing fearlessly, and that's what we want them to do."
"We have a lot of energy in the dugout and I think as long as we bring that, it carries into our hitting, it carries into our defense, and it gives you a chance when you're down or you're playing a really tough team," Ernsberger added. "We know that we're a dang good team and that we can beat whoever."
There's no question DWU's toughest tests are still ahead of them. Their final three regular-season doubleheaders of the season are against the other top teams in the GPAC standings. Midland, currently tied for third place, will be up first on April 18 with a doubleheader at McWhirter Field for the Tigers' home finale. DWU then plays at second-place Dordt on April 23 and at third-place Morningside on April 25.
The top-two seeds in the GPAC postseason each host a four-team bracket in the postseason, starting April 29. DWU has never hosted any part of the GPAC tournament and never won a conference title in softball.
"We talk about standards and expectations a lot, and this is what we've been talking about since Day 1, that we expect to be competing for conference championships," Oswald said. "We don't want to get ahead of ourselves. We're always one pitch, one game at a time, but that's absolutely our expectation, to be the best team in the conference and have the best season in program history."
The Tigers are in only their fifth winning season in 50 years of softball at the university. Blogg knows where the team has been and where it's going, led by its team members that have kept building the program.
"The past few years have been crazy," Blogg said. "My freshman year, we had a total of nine wins. It's been a big difference. ... The flip is that the girls want to show up for practice, they want to show up for games, and they want to improve. You can see the heart and the drive from every single girl on this team."
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And then their coach Tommy Downs left to become the University of Sioux Falls' new softball coach.
In college sports today, that's usually a bad sign. Athletes frequently pick a school because of a coach and their philosophy, and with transferring as easy as ever, continuity between coaches doesn't always happen.
But the 2026 edition of the Tigers are showing it's the players who make the biggest difference, and the DWU softball program is soaring once again thanks to the players who remained committed to the program.
Under first-year head coach Stephen Oswald Jr., the Tigers have a record of 28-11 and an impressive 11-1 Great Plains Athletic Conference league mark, with 10 wins in a row ahead of a Saturday doubleheader at Doane.
Of DWU's 12 leading hitters from 2025, nine of them are back this season. The other three were seniors that graduated. DWU also brought back their top three pitchers from a season ago. Nobody transferred away, the core stayed intact and the Tigers' turnaround is continuing to build.
"It's no credit to me, truthfully. I got hired pretty late in late July," Oswald said. "Talking to the girls, a big thing was the senior leadership and the older players, they talked to the incoming recruits and everybody said, 'Hey, we want to stay together as a team,' because they already loved each other that much as a family, and we've only grown in that. It's been awesome. ... They want to be here, they want to be in Mitchell, they want to be at Dakota Wesleyan."
DWU standout pitcher Alison Ernsberger said there was never much concern about who the university would hire as a new coach. She said the belief among the players was all they needed.
"We were just thinking the whole time, 'Well, it doesn't really matter who our next coach is because we know that we're so close and such a tight-knit group,'" Ernsberger recalled of the coaching change period. "We kind of let Ozzie know that when he came in, like, 'Hey, we're all good and we're all close and very well connected, so there's no need to worry about that or trying to build a new team.' We picked it up right there and went forward."
Oswald previously coached softball at Mount Marty and most recently at Ohio Dominican University but he's a head coach for the first time with the Tigers. He said he stepped into an advantageous situation with a strong team culture already in place, something his players have worked hard to foster.
"We lost some crucial players last year, players that were good seniors and just a big part of the team with a lot of heart," senior catcher Jordyn Blogg said. "But there's girls that can fill those roles. We've got plenty of freshmen that came up, we've got transfers and there's no problem filling those roles. The coaching switch, I mean, I thought it was for the better. Coach (Oswald), he's big on faith, he's big on family and that's two big things that we love on this team."
DWU is hitting .313 as a team, with seven players that have extensive playing time and a batting average of at least .300 or better. Alessandra Ciurca is hitting a team-best .385 with a .477 on-base percentage, plus 18 stolen bases, while Macy Moore has a team-best six home runs, 43 runs scored and is hitting .383. Moore is tied with Liliana Arreola with a team-leading 31 RBIs, and Arreola is hitting .347, and Ashlen Johnson has 26 RBIs and 21 extra-base hits, including five home runs. As a team, DWU is No. 2 in the GPAC in home runs (34) and extra-base hits (122).
"We've harped on the fact that there's three parts of the game," Oswald said. "There's offense, there's defense, and there's pitching. And any given day, we can perform in all three and I think there's always room to improve in all three."
The Tigers pitching staff has lowered their team earned-run average to 3.25, led by two key starters with Alison Ernsberger and Madalyn Nachtigall. Ernsberger, who was the 2025 GPAC freshman of the year and a two-time reigning GPAC pitcher of the week, is 11-6 with a 1.98 ERA and 116 strikeouts in 106 innings pitched. Nachtigall is 10-2 in the circle with a 3.60 ERA and 62 strikeouts in 83 2/3 innings. Mitchell product Kierstyn Krcil has been the No. 3 starter with a 4-3 record and 25 strikeouts in 42 2/3 innings.
Oswald pointed to a stretch in late March in which DWU scored 48 runs in a four-game span, including a 19-18 win over College of Saint Mary on March 27. A few days earlier, DWU won a pair of extra-inning games 3-2 over Hastings in which defense and pitching were at a premium.
"The pitching has been very consistent, the defense has been improving a bunch, and the hitting has been really kicking butt lately," Oswald said. "I think what it comes down to is just playing confidently, and that's what they're doing. They are playing fearlessly, and that's what we want them to do."
"We have a lot of energy in the dugout and I think as long as we bring that, it carries into our hitting, it carries into our defense, and it gives you a chance when you're down or you're playing a really tough team," Ernsberger added. "We know that we're a dang good team and that we can beat whoever."
There's no question DWU's toughest tests are still ahead of them. Their final three regular-season doubleheaders of the season are against the other top teams in the GPAC standings. Midland, currently tied for third place, will be up first on April 18 with a doubleheader at McWhirter Field for the Tigers' home finale. DWU then plays at second-place Dordt on April 23 and at third-place Morningside on April 25.
The top-two seeds in the GPAC postseason each host a four-team bracket in the postseason, starting April 29. DWU has never hosted any part of the GPAC tournament and never won a conference title in softball.
"We talk about standards and expectations a lot, and this is what we've been talking about since Day 1, that we expect to be competing for conference championships," Oswald said. "We don't want to get ahead of ourselves. We're always one pitch, one game at a time, but that's absolutely our expectation, to be the best team in the conference and have the best season in program history."
The Tigers are in only their fifth winning season in 50 years of softball at the university. Blogg knows where the team has been and where it's going, led by its team members that have kept building the program.
"The past few years have been crazy," Blogg said. "My freshman year, we had a total of nine wins. It's been a big difference. ... The flip is that the girls want to show up for practice, they want to show up for games, and they want to improve. You can see the heart and the drive from every single girl on this team."
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