ALLIANCE, Ohio— Mount Union's softball team swept Otterbein in their home opening doubleheader in Ohio Athletic Conference play on Wednesday evening, winning game one 12-4 in six innings and taking game two 6-1.
The Purple Raiders (16-10, 5-3 OAC) struck first in game one when junior Lydia Brunner (Minerva) hit an RBI triple to get the Raiders on the board, and then sophomore Kyndall Hahn (Garrettsville / James Garfield) hit a sacrifice bunt to score Brunner and make the lead 2-0 in the bottom of the second.
The Cardinals (13-12, 4-5 OAC) would answer with a run of their own in the top half of the third when Caroline Heller hit an RBI single to cut the lead to a run.
Mount Union would then explode for an eight-run inning in the bottom half of the third. Junior Kendyll Cahill (Groveport / Groveport Madison) got things started with a two-RBI double to bring in juniors Faith Reicosky (North Canton / Hoover) and Sydney Mercer (Salem / West Branch), then senior Tori Sickafoose (Magnolia / Sandy Valley) brought in Cahill with an RBI single to right field. Freshman Allison Jones (Berlin Center / West Branch) would then hit a bases-clearing three-RBI triple to stretch the lead to seven runs. Mercer would then hit an RBI single that scored Jones and then would steal home to cap off the inning and stretch the lead to 10-1.
Otterbein would answer with a three-run inning of their own in the following inning, with RBIs coming from Jen Sindledecker and Caitlin Wilkins, cutting the lead to six runs.
The Raiders would add to their lead again in the bottom half of the same inning, scoring off a Brunner RBI double, and then would add another run in the sixth, scoring off another Sickafoose RBI single to push the lead back to eight runs and give Mount Union the 12-4 win in game one.
Cahill got the start in the circle for Mount Union in game one and gave up just a single run on three hits and struck out three in 5.1 innings of action. Freshman Daniella Vecchio (Monongahela, Pa. / Ringgold) would come in to throw 0.2 innings in relief and gave up two runs, zero earned, on two hits.
The Raiders would once again strike first in game two, scoring two runs in the first inning off RBIs from Cahill and Sickafoose. They would then add to their lead in the second inning, scoring three runs— the first coming off a Mercer RBI, then Mercer scored on a Reicosky RBI, and then Reicosky scored after a throwing error by the first baseman to stretch the lead to five runs.
The Cardinals would cut the lead to 5-1 in the fourth inning when Caroline Heller scored after an error by the third baseman.
Mount Union would get the run back in the following inning when Brunner hit an RBI single that scored junior Abbie Gayner (Akron / Revere) to push the lead back out to five. Otterbein wouldn't have an answer over the remainder of the game as the Raiders would go on to take game two 6-1.
Junior Chloe Bird (Norton) would get the start in the circle in game two for Mount Union and gave up just one run, zero earned, on three hits and struck out two in 4.2 innings of work. Sophomore Haleigh McCalla (Youngstown / Springfield Local) would come in to throw 2.0 innings in relief and gave up zero runs on just two hits while striking out two. Freshman Emma Reemsnyder (Canton / GlenOak) would come in to throw the final 0.1 innings and gave up zero runs on zero hits.
The Raiders hit the road next when they travel to Wilmington for an OAC matchup with the Quakers on Friday, April 18, with game one beginning at 1 p.m. and game two following at 3 p.m.
