Softball splits doubleheader with Mt. St. Joseph
By Wes Mayberry
ADA — The Ohio Northern softball team split a doubleheader with Mt. St. Joseph on Tuesday at the ONU Softball Field, dropping the opener 9-4 before winning the nightcap by the same score.
The Polar Bears move to 13-11 overall on the season, and the Lions are now 18-8.
Offensive outbursts in the second and fifth innings spurred Northern to the victory in Game 2.
After the Lions opened the scoring with a two-run home run from Courtney Keller, ONU tied the score courtesy of a two-out, two-run double from senior Annika Murray (Hilliard/Bradley).
The next three batters all drove in runs, as RBI singles from sophomore Callie Rosser (Republic/Monroeville) and fifth-year senior Abby Elliott (Loveland/Ursuline) sandwiched an RBI double from senior Lauren Walls (Grove City) to give the Polar Bears a 5-2 lead.
Solo homers from Elizabeth Ivers and Kaci Finchum cut the MSJ deficit to one, 5-4, in the fourth inning, but the Polar Bears answered in a big way in the fifth.
Back-to-back RBI singles from freshman Kylie King (London/Jonathan Alder) and Murray put ONU up 7-4, and Rosser loaded the bases with no outs when she was hit by a pitch.
Northern scored its final two runs on a bases-loaded walk to Walls followed by an Elliott hit-by-pitch.
Senior pitcher Allie Bican (Solon) allowed just one base-runner in holding the Lions scoreless over the final two innings.
Bican pitched all seven innings, allowing the four runs on six hits and one walk to go with two strikeouts in improving to 6-6 on the season.
Elliott and senior Sydney Motylinski (Ida, Mich.) paced the offense with three hits apiece, and Murray finished with a team-best three RBIs.
Walls provided the offensive highlight for Northern in Game 1, as she capped the scoring with a two-run homer to center field in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Junior Kaylie Griffin (Grafton/Elyria Catholic) opened the scoring with an RBI single that plated Rosser in the bottom of the first.
MSJ responded with a 2-RBI double from Casey Kemp in the third, an RBI double from Casey Bramble in the fourth and an RBI walk from Finchum in the fifth for a 4-1 lead.
A Rosser single, with the help of an MSJ error, plated Murray to get ONU within 4-2 in the bottom of the fifth, but the Lions continued to extend their lead over the latter innings.
MSJ tallied seven of its 17 total hits in the final two frames and converted them into five runs highlighted by a two-run homer from Maddie Kennedy in the sixth as the lead grew to 9-2 before Walls' home run.
The Polar Bears have a quick turnaround, returning to action on Wednesday for a doubleheader at Ohio Athletic Conference foe Wilmington beginning at 3 p.m.
