Stewart's second career multi home run game leads Softball in double header sweep over Wooster

By Caleb Scott

ADA -- Freshman Gabby Stewart (Union, Ky./St. Henry) used her second career multi home run game to help the Ohio Northern softball team sweep Wooster 2-1, 8-5 in a non-conference matchup at the ONU Softball Field on Monday afternoon.

The Polar Bears improve to 25-11 overall, while the Scots fall to 16-20.

Stewart led the Polar Bears offensively as she went a combined 4-for-8 with five RBI and four runs scored during the two contests.

Sophomore Hailee Loughman (Brookville) was a combined 5-for-8 with two RBI and a run scored.

Junior Jenna Hollar (Lima/Bath) went 3-for-5 on the day with three runs scored.

Wooster got on the board first with a solo home run in the top of the second inning to take an early 1-0 lead in game one.

Northern would get its first run of the day in the bottom of the fifth inning as Hollar was able to score on an RBI-single from Loughman to tie the contest at 1-1.

After a defensive battle ensued for the remainder of regulation, Loughman was able to hit a walkoff double to left field with a runner on second due to the international run rule.

Northern would go on to claim game one by a score of 2-1.

Junior Kirsten Lightel (Tallmadge) earned the game one victory as she struck out a game-high 11 batters.

In the second contest freshman Gabby Stewart (Union, Ky./St. Henry) wasted no time getting Northern the lead as she hit a 2-run dinger in her first at bat to give ONU an early 2-0 lead.

Northern would open the game up in the bottom of the third inning as they scored two more runs in the frame.

After Stewart opened the inning with a double to left field, Loughman would single to put runners on the corners with no outs. 

After a stolen base from Loughman and a walk from junior Gia Saturday (Ashtabula/Edgewood), junior Leanna Henry (West Jefferson) hit a ground out RBI to second base to plate Stewart.

From there, freshman Alicia Swierz (Deerfield/Southest) would hit a sac fly to left field to plate Loughman and push the lead to 4-2.

After a Wooster grand slam tied the contest in the fourth inning, Stewart drilled her second home run of the game over the left field fence in the bottom half of the inning to give the Polar Bears a 7-4 lead.

Swierz would get her second RBI of the contest as she hit an RBI ground out to the short stop to extend Northern's lead to 8-4 through four innings.

Wooster would add one run run in the top of the seventh inning but could not manage to get any closer as Northern went on to win 8-5.

Sophomore Kaitlin Surdej earned the game two victory to improve to 11-6 overall, while fanning five batters.

The Polar Bears return to action Saturday in their final regular season contests of the season as they travel to Columbus to take on Capital in a twinbill at 1 pm.