Freshman Anne Dreher hits pair of home runs as Softball splits OAC double header with Wilmington

By Tim Glon

ADA -- Freshman Anne Dreher ripped a pair of home runs to lead Ohio Northern to a split with Wilmington in an Ohio Athletic Conference softball double header Thursday afternoon at the ONU Softball Field.

WC won the opener 5-3 and ONU took the nightcap 9-3.

The Polar Bears move to 8-10 overall and 7-5 in OAC action, while the Quakers move to 19-9, 5-7.

Dreher hit two solo home runs, her third and fourth of the season, in Game 2 as ONU salvaged the split and remained in fourth place in the OAC.

Northern sent 10 batters to the plate in a 6-run second inning to take a 6-2 lead.

Dreher led off the inning with a solo home run and Senior Michelle Sweet, junior Carly McKenzie, sophomore Kelly Sheridan and freshman Amanda Lahti all followed with RBI hits in the inning.

Northern tacked on two runs in the bottom of the third on RBI hits by junior Christin Miller and senior Ashley Sujkowski.

Dreher hit her second home run of the game to lead off the bottom of the fourth to make it a 9-2 game.

Senior Katy Newman (3-5) earned the complete-game victory for ONU.

In Game 1, ONU got on the board in the bottom of the first when Miller singled, went to third on a couple of throwing errors by Quaker defenders and scored on a single by Sujkowski.

WC evened the score with a run in the top of the second and took a 3-1 lead with a pair of unearned runs in the top of the fourth.

Junior Jamie Westenkirchner blooped a single down the left field line in the fourth inning and later scored on a single by Miller to trim the deficit to 3-2.

Sweet tied the game at 3-3 with an RBI double in the bottom of the sixth, scoring junior Colleen Baliga.

Northern eventually loaded the bases with none out in the inning, but could not score.

Wilmington got a 2-out, 2-run double by Kelsey Becker in the top of the seventh to take a 5-3 lead.

Miller and Westenkirchner each collected four hits for ONU.

The Polar Bears will return to action on Saturday with an OAC double header at Baldwin Wallace.