(NEW CONCORD, OH)--Mount Union College's softball team handed Muskingum College just its second home loss of the season with a 7-3 lead in game one before falling 8-6 in game two and in the process picked up a key Ohio Athletic Conference split Thursday in New Concord.
The split leaves the Purple Raiders 24-14 overall and at 10-6 in the OAC in control of their OAC Tournament destiny. The top four teams make the end of season conference tourney and if the Raiders sweep their final two regular season games Saturday at Heidelberg University then they would make the field.
Muskingum, 22-12 overall, is 11-5 in the OAC and only one game back in the win column behind first place Ohio Northern University (12-2 in the OAC).
Ashley Henriques (Canton/GlenOak) broke a scoreless game one open in the third inning as her two-out single drove in a pair of runs and allowed the Raiders to take advantage of a Muskingum error to lead 2-0.
The Muskies tied the game in the bottom of the half of the inning on a two-run home run by Chelsea Kaunert that ended Mount Union pitcher Bre Willis' (Navarre/Fairless) scoreless innings streak at 21 innings.
Muskingum would commit three errors in the fourth and Mount Union again put two runs on the board as Anna Horning (Cuyahoga Falls/Woodridge) drove in a run on a single and on the same play the ball was mishandled to let another run come across to put the Raiders up 4-2.
The Muskies answered again in the fourth inning with a run to close to within 4-3 but Willis would only allow three hits the rest of the way to pick up her eighth win of the season.
Mount Union scored three insurance runs in the seventh as Alex Lucak (Maple Heights/Trinity) led off the inning with a home run and Meghan Allen (Hartville/Lake) and Jill Rader (Ashland/Ashland) had back-to-back RBI singles.
In game two, Mount Union would again start things in the third inning as Steph Cain (Akron/Springfield Local) drew a walk to start the inning and would later score on when Meghan Simons (Minerva/Minerva) was hit by a pitch with bases loaded.
Muskingum would then turn the tables in the bottom of the third as this time a Mount Union error with two outs opened up the floodgates of a five-run inning and gave the Muskies a 5-1 lead.
The Raiders returned the favor with a five-run fifth inning to retake the lead, 6-5. Mount Union would send 10 batters to the plate with the big hit coming off the bat of Lucak as she hit a two-RBI single.
The Muskies would not be denied as they scored three more runs in the bottom of the fifth on solo home runs from Mary Margaret Boda and Brittany Reynolds and an RBI single from Kaunert and they hung on for the 8-6 final.
