(MARIETTA, OH)--Mount Union College's softball team stayed in contention for a spot in the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament with 8-0 and 10-3 road wins at Marietta College Thursday in Marietta, Ohio.

The sweep allowed the Purple Raiders to cross the 20-win plateau for the sixth-straight season and at 7-5 in the OAC leaves them in a crowd of seven teams within three games of first place. 

Marietta, which committed seven errors over the two games, is also in that crowd of teams as the Pioneers are also 7-5 in the conference and 20-10 overall.

Sophomore Alex Lucak (Maple Heights/Trinity) went 4-for-5 and scored five runs, sophomore Mara Palombaro (Boardman/Cardinal Mooney) went 3-for-4 and drove in two runs while junior Anna Horning (Cuyahoga Falls/Woodridge) blasted her team-best sixth home run of the season to lead the Raiders to a 10-3 win in game two.

Freshman Gia Mauer (Chardon/Chardon) made her fourth start and improved to 4-0 as she scattered seven hits over the first 6.1 innings.

There was another strong pitching performance in the opener as freshman pitcher Bre Willis (Navarre/Fairless) faced only three batters over the minimum and struck out three on her way to a three hit shutout in an 8-0 win in the opener.

The offense got going in the second inning as the first four hitters reached and three scored to give Mount Union a 3-0 lead. 

The Raiders tallied three more runs in the third to make it 6-0 on an RBI double from Jill Rader (Ashland/Ashland), a sacrifice fly RBI from Stephanie Cain (Akron/Springfield Local) and another run crossed on the Pioneers third error of the game.

Horning drove in a run on a ground out in the fourth and Cain sent the score to 8-0 with a fielder's choice RBI in the fifth and Willis shut the door to end the game in the fifth.

Lucak finished the day 5-for-7 at the plate.

Mount Union returns home and hosts Otterbein College in an OAC doubleheader and regular season home finale Saturday at 1 pm at 23rd Street Field in Alliance.