DELAWARE, Ohio – Mount Union's softball team lost both games in a non-conference doubleheader with Ohio Wesleyan, losing game one 4-3 in eight innings and losing game two 5-3 on Thursday evening.
The Purple Raiders (15-4) would strike first in game one when freshman
Kyndall Hahn (Garrettsville / James Garfield) laid down a sacrifice bunt to bring in sophomore
Brooklyn Schlabach (Apple Creek / Waynedale) to take a 1-0 lead in the top of the second.
The Battling Bishops (11-4-1) would tie the game at one run apiece in the bottom half of the fifth when Rylee Anspach scored on an error. Mount Union would reclaim the lead in the top of the sixth inning when sophomore
Kendyll Cahill (Grove Port / Grove Port Madison) hit an RBI triple that scored sophomore
Faith Reicosky (North Canton / Hoover) and then junior
Tori Sickafoose (Magnolia / Sandy Valley) hit an RBI single that scored Cahill to take a 3-1 lead.
Ohio Wesleyan would answer again with a run in the bottom half of the inning when Sophia Cegledy hit an RBI to cut the lead down to a run. The Bishops would then tie the game in the seventh when Sara Bias hit an RBI double to tie the game at three and force extra innings. Ohio Wesleyan would score the game winning run in the bottom of the eighth when Avery Panozzo hit a sacrifice fly that brought in Alyssa Back to take the 4-3 victory in game one.
Cahill got the start in the circle in game one for Mount Union and gave up four runs, one earned on five hits and struck out four, pitching the complete game.
The Raiders would strike first again in game two when junior
Adri George (Eastlake / North) hit an RBI double in the top half of the third to take a 1-0 lead. The Bishops would answer in the bottom of the inning with three runs of their own with RBIs coming from Cegledy, Sophie Leohner and Rylie Moore to take a 3-1 lead.
Ohio Wesleyan would then add to their lead in the fourth inning when they scored two runs off an error to push their lead out to four runs.
Mount Union would answer with two runs of their own in the top of the fifth inning, the first coming off an RBI double from George that brought in sophomore
Sydney Mercer (Salem / West Branch) and then Cahill hit an RBI single to cut the lead to 5-3. The Raiders wouldn't be able to score any runs in the sixth inning before the game was called due to darkness as the Bishops would take game two 5-3.
Sophomore
Chloe Bird (Norton) got the start in the circle in game two and gave up five runs, three earned on five hits and struck out two in 3.1 innings of action. Freshman
Haleigh McCalla (Youngstown / Springfield Local) would come in to pitch the final 1.2 innings in relief and gave up zero runs on two hits.
The Raiders return home next when they host Heidelberg in their Ohio Athletic Conference opener on Friday, March 29 at the 23
rd Street Softball Field at 1 and 3 p.m. in Alliance.