In four seasons pitching for Ashland’s softball team, Emlyn Knerem has racked up numerous accomplishments. Her bio page on the team’s website looks like it belongs to a seasoned veteran on a major league squad. There is one accomplishment that has not made its way onto that page, however.

“I would really love to win a conference tournament championship,” Knerem said.

Though the Eagles came close last season – losing in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship game – and won the regular season title during Knerem’s freshman season in 2009, a tournament crown has eluded Ashland’s ace. She wants to change that.

As of Tuesday, the Eagles had a record of 34-12 (18-8 GLIAC) with six games remaining. Ashland is atop the GLIAC South standings, second in the conference overall – behind Grand Valley State, second in the Midwest Region and among “others receiving votes” in the national rankings.

Knerem (23-2, 1.33 ERA) is seventh nationally in wins, 17th in ERA, 20th in strikeouts per seven innings and 21st in strikeouts. She started out the year 19-0 before losing 4-2 to Ohio Dominican April 5.

She said the keys to her success have been mixing up her pitches and having a defense that has been able to make huge plays. Not setting as many preseason goals as she had in the past has allowed her to stay relaxed.

“I don’t really know if I (set goals) for the season this year and I think it’s really helped me to not put more pressure on myself,” she said. “I do that enough as it is.”

Her attitude has carried over to the rest of the team. After a five-day stretch in which they lost four out of six games against Ohio Dominican and Wayne State, the Eagles came into last weekend knowing it could make or break their season.

“After the two losses at Wayne State I think our eyes were kind of opened and we realized how little time we had left before the year ended,” Knerem said. “As a senior, it really hits home because you realize you don’t have as much time left as you want to believe.”

Instead of pressing, Ashland went back to the attitude that had won them games all season. It worked. Ashland split a doubleheader at Hillsdale Friday (13-4, 1-5) and came within a ninth inning walk-off home run of sweeping No. 17 Grand Valley State on the road Saturday (6-1, 0-1). Then they dispatched Ferris State in back-to-back games Sunday (7-4, 5-4).

Senior third baseman Alyssa Kelley got hits in all six games, going 10-21 with two RBI during the weekend road trip. Junior catcher Tawna Garver extended her hit streak to nine games with seven hits and two RBI.

“We kind of re-focused,” Knerem said. “We’ve put things back into perspective and now I think we just need to focus on taking things one game at a time and just playing our game.”

Ashland returned home Wednesday for a doubleheader against Lake Erie and will play its last two home games starting 2 p.m. Friday against Tiffin. If all goes well, the Eagles will head to Wayne State Tuesday with the conference regular season title on the line.

“Our eyes are on a title,” Knerem said. “That’s what we want. I think now we’ve kind of realized that every game from now on is just putting us one step closer to that goal.”

No matter what happens in the regular season race, Knerem will get the chance to claim a conference tournament crown beginning next Friday at Findlay. The eight-team tournament will finish Sunday, April 29 with the GLIAC Championship. A win in that game could earn the Eagles the right to host the NCAA Midwest Regional.