COLUMBUS, Georgia—The Mount Union softball team opened the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Leadoff Classic with a top 25 win over No. 24 Belhaven (Miss.) and a win over LaGrange (Ga.) Friday afternoon.
Mount Union (2-0) starts off the season scoring 15 runs with a batting average of .377 while the pitching allowed just seven runs with a batting average of .228.
Mount Union got off to a hot start in the first game of the season as
Sydney Mercer (Salem / West Branch) doubled to start the game and
Faith Reicosky (North Canton / Hoover) singled to score Mercer before an out was recorded. Both teams settled in from there as neither scored another run through three innings as Mount Union had the 1-0 lead.
The Raiders bats came alive in the top of the fourth inning, scoring four runs.
Grace Bates (Mount Vernon) had a sac fly scoring
Kaitlyn Culver (Girard), Bruner singled through the right side of the infield scoring
Alli Hodgkinson (Akron / Manchester),
Lindsay Jones (Berlin Center / Western Reserve) scored from second base as her twin sister
Allison Jones (Berlin Center / Western Reserve) laid a bunt down making it to first base, and a double from Mercer scored A. Jones to put Mount Union up 5-0.
LaGrange (1-10) picked up a run in the bottom of the fourth inning with a single up the middle scored a runner making it 5-1.
Mount Union added three more runs in the sixth inning leading 8-1. Bates ripped off a double scoring
Kyndall Hahn (Garrettsville / James Garfield),
Ava Beas (Brunswick) scored from third base on a fielding error from the left fielder and Mercer flied out to center field scoring Brunner.
Brooklyn Schlabach (Apple Creek / Waynedale) picked up the victory for the Raiders in the circle allowing just one run on four hits with two strikeouts in four innings pitched while
Emma Reemsnyder (Canton / GlenOak),
Daniella Vecchio (Monongahela, Pa. / Ringgold) and
Haleigh McCalla (Youngstown / Springfield Local) each pitched a scoreless inning to close the door.
In the second game of the day Mount Union outlasted No. 24 Belhaven (Miss.) (6-5) earning a top 25 win to start the season.
Belhaven got a two-run homerun to start the first inning taking an early 2-0 lead. Mount Union responded with a single through the right side by
Addy Antonetz (Zanesville / West Muskingum) scoring Mercer as Mount Union trailed 2-1.
Neither team scored in the second inning and Mount Union kept Belhaven scoreless in the third. The Raiders, however, exploded for six runs in the inning, taking a 7-2 lead. Mercer tripled to right center scoring A. Jones, Reicosky reached on an error which scored Mercer, Hodgkinson singled to left center bringing Reicosky and Antonetz home and
Lydia Brunner (Minerva) doubled, scoring Hodgkinson and Culver.
Belhaven scored a run with a triple in the fourth and a double in the fifth to close the Raiders lead to 7-4. A scoreless sixth for both teams led to a scary seventh inning as Belhaven got the bases loaded with no outs. Belhaven then scored two runs with walks and no outs, but Reemsynder calmed down, got a fly out to left field and then struck the final two girls out looking.
Kendyll Cahill (Groveport / Groveport Madison) picked up her first win of the season pitching six innings allowing eight hits and five runs while striking out nine batters. Reemsnyder picked up the save coming in the final innings to close the game out allowing no runs with no hits and striking out two.
Mount Union will return tomorrow to the NFCA Leadoff Classic taking on No. 13 Emory at 10 am and Pomona-Pitzer at 12:30 pm.
