Mount Union hosts OAC softball

ALLIANCE — The Ohio Athletic Conference Softball Tournament will be held today through Sunday at Mount Union’s 23rd Street Softball Field.

The top-seeded Purple Raiders are 29-5 overall and 15-1 in the OAC, the lone loss to Baldwin Wallace on April 8.

Area players on the Mount Union roster are senior utility player Sydney Mercer from West Branch, senior shortstop Lydia Brunner from Minerva, sophomore utility player Allison Jones from Western Reserve, sophomore oufielder Lindsay Jones from Western Reserve and junior pitcher Haleigh McCalla from Springfield Local. Former Minerva High School standout Megan Simons is in her 10th season as Mount Union’s head coach.

The winner of the single-elimination tournament receives automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Softball Tournament.

Action begins today with No. 3 Baldwin Wallace vs. No. 6 Capital at 1:30 p.m. and No. 4 Heidelberg vs. No. 5 Wilmington at 4 p.m.

Play continues Friday with No. 1 Mount Union vs. the lowest remaining seed at 11 a.m. and No. 2 Muskingum vs. the second-lowest remaining seed at 2:30 p.m.

The championship game will be held at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

Tickets are $16 for a single day or $26 for a tournament pass and are available online at HomeTown Ticketing.

Purple Raiders promote Twiddy

ALLIANCE — The University of Mount Union has promoted Josh Twiddy as head men’s basketball coach.

Twiddy, a 2006 graduate of Mogadore High School, has had two stints at Mount Union.

After being on the Purple Raiders staff in 2012-13, he went to be a graduate assistant coach at the University of Akron for Keith Dambrot for two seasons before coming back to Mount Union.

He replaced Mike Fuline, who left after 15 seasons as head coach to join Jerrod Calhoun’s staff at University of Cincinnati. Fuline will be an assistant coach and high school relations coordinator for the Bearcats.