Softball: Ohio Northern (6-6 Overall, 2-0 OAC) at Mount Union (11-11 Overall, 1-1 OAC)
Saturday, April 2, 2022, 1 p.m. – 23rd Street Softball Field, Alliance, Ohio
Saturday's Preview: The Ohio Northern softball team is playing its first road Ohio Athletic Conference games of the season with Saturday's doubleheader at Mount Union … The Polar Bears are coming off Wednesday's home doubleheader sweep of Marietta, winning 7-3 in Game 1 and 7-6 in Game 2 … Freshman Ashley Lenser led the way in ONU's Game 1 victory, as she pitched all seven innings and tallied a team-high two RBIs … Lenser allowed just two earned runs on nine hits and two walks while striking out seven in the pitching circle, and her two-run single in the bottom of the first inning put ONU up 3-0 … Senior Abby Elliott had two doubles in the game, and sophomore Kaylie Griffin added a double as part of a two-hit game … Northern won Game 2 in walk-off fashion on a two-out, 2-RBI single from senior Lauren Renner … Elliott also tallied two RBIs in the game … Elliott and junior Sydney Motylinski had doubles in the game … Junior Allie Bican earned the win in the pitching circle after allowing just one run on three hits and one walk while striking out six in 4.1 innings in relief of senior starter Stacey Walters … Griffin leads ONU in batting average (.429) and runs (11) and is tied with senior Hannah Rubel in hits (12) … Griffin is tied for eighth in the OAC in batting average and tied for ninth in runs … Rubel leads the team in RBIs (8) and ranks second in batting average (.375) … Senior Rachel Hish ranks third on the team in batting average (.345) and hits (10) and ranks second in runs (8) … Hish and Elliott are four and six hits away, respectively, from 100 in their careers … Walters ranks eighth in the OAC in ERA and is tied for eighth in strikeouts … Walters is tied for 10th all-time at ONU with 147 career strikeouts … Mount Union enters Saturday's doubleheader at 11-11 overall on the season coming off splitting Wednesday's home doubleheader against Penn State-Behrend (Pa.) … The Purple Raiders lost 4-2 in Game 1 and won 8-0 in Game 2 … Junior Grace Heath led the Mount Union offense in Game 2 with two hits, including a triple, and three RBIs … Senior Alyssa Rose improved to 4-2 on the season, pitching all five innings and allowing just one hit and three walks while striking out three … Heath paces the Mount Union offense on the season with a .507 batting average and 35 hits, including two home runs, eight triples and six doubles, to go with 11 RBIs … Heath leads the OAC in batting average, hits and triples and is tied for fourth in doubles … Senior Hanna Ingram has a team-high 21 RBIs, which leads the OAC … Megan Zody has a team- and OAC-best 1.40 ERA over 35 innings pitched … Rose has a team-high 37 strikeouts, which ranks fifth in the OAC.
Ohio Northern Batting Leaders:
Batting Avg. | Hits | Runs | RBI | |||||||||||
1. | Griffin | .429 | 1. | Rubel | 12 | 1. | Griffin | 11 | 1. | Rubel | 8 | |||
2. | Rubel | .375 | Griffin | 12 | 2. | Hish | 8 | 2. | Griffin | 6 | ||||
3. | Hish | .345 | 3. | Hish | 10 | 3. | Elliott | 7 | Lenser | 6 |
Ohio Northern Pitching Leaders:
Wins | ERA | Strikeouts | ||||||||
1. | Walters | 2 | 1. | Walters | 3.23 | 1. | Walters | 26 | ||
Lenser | 2 | 2. | Bican | 3.65 | 2. | Lenser | 21 | |||
3. | Bican | 1 | 3. | Lenser | 3.72 | 3. | Bican | 12 | ||
Harris | 1 |
All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series with Mount Union by a 54-44-1 margin, including 24-18 on the road … The teams last met in the 2021 OAC Tournament semifinals when ONU came away with a 5-4 road win.
Head Coach Jackie Price: Price is in her sixth year at the helm of the Ohio Northern softball team … She is 117-70-1 at Ohio Northern, a winning percentage of .625.