ALLIANCE, Ohio – The no. 12 nationally ranked Mount Union softball team split a pair of games in the NCAA Tournament, losing to Christopher Newport 8-5 and beating Penn College 13-2 in five innings in an elimination game on Friday afternoon.
The Purple Raiders (31-7) would strike first in their first game of the day when freshman
Grace Bates (Mount Vernon) had an RBI sacrifice that scored senior
Kendyll Cahill (Groveport / Groveport Madsion) to take a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning.
The Captains (30-11) would answer in the bottom half of the same inning with two runs of their own when Candace Slaw hit a two-RBI single to take a 2-1 lead.
Mount Union would reclaim the lead in the following inning after RBI singles from freshmen
Addy Antonetz (Zanesville / West Muskingum) and
Alli Hodgkinson (Akron / Manchester) that scored seniors
Sydney Mercer (Salem / West Branch) and
Faith Reicosky (North Canton / Hoover) to take a 3-2 lead. Christopher Newport would answer once again in the bottom half of the inning with Brooke Zuber scored following an error by the Mount Union first basemen to tie the game at three runs apiece.
The Raiders would reclaim the lead in the top half of the fourth when Mercer hit an RBI single that scored sophomore
Allison Jones (Berlin Center / Western Reserve) to take a 4-3 lead. The Captains would answer once again when Isabel Hall hit a solo home run to right center in the bottom half of the fourth to tie the game at four.
Christopher Newport would take the lead in the fifth inning when Brooke Zuber hit a solo home run to right center field to reclaim the lead at 5-4. The Captains would add to their lead in the following inning when Alexah Gordon and Simone Thompson both hit RBIs to stretch the lead to four runs.
The Raiders would answer with a run of their own in the top of the seventh inning when senior
Kaitlyn Culver (Girard) hit an RBI single that scored Antonetz, but that is as close as they would get as Christopher Newport would go on to win 8-5.
Cahill got the start in the circle for Mount Union and gave up five runs, four earned on seven hits in four innings of action. Sophomore
Emma Reemsnyder would come in to throw two innings in relief, giving up three runs on one hit.
Penn College (34-9) would strike first in Mount Union's second game of the day when Astyn Calaman had an RBI walk to take a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning.
The Raiders would respond with a massive 11 run bottom half of the third, with RBIs coming from Mercer, Antonetz, Cahill, freshman
Isabella Thomas-Friend (Amherst / Marion L. Steele), senior
Emily Denney (Poland / Poland Seminary), Jones and Reicosky to take an 11-1 lead. Mount Union would add to that lead in the following inning when Denney hit an RBI double to score Culver and then senior
Lydia Brunner (Minerva) scored Denney to stretch the lead to 13-1.
The Wildcats would answer in the top half of the fifth when Taylor Brown hit a solo home run to left field, but that is as close as they would get as the Raiders would go on to win 13-2 in five innings.
Reemsnyder got the start in the circle for Mount Union and gave up one run on three hits and struck out five in three innings of work. Sophomore
Haleigh McCalla (Youngstown / Springfield Local) came in to pitch an inning of relief and gave up zero runs on two hits. Junior
Daniella Vecchio (Monongahela, Pa. / Ringgold) would come in to throw the final inning in relief and gave up one run on two hits.
The Raiders are back in action tomorrow when they take on Christopher Newport in the Regional Championship at 11 a.m. in Alliance.
