It’s Feast, Then Famine for AU Softball at Findlay
April 26, 2003

As Billy Joel used to sing, “Sometimes I go to extremes.”

Saturday at Findlay’s Riverside Park, the Ashland University softball team played at both ends of the spectrum. In the first game of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference twinbill, AU had 11 hits in coming from behind to win, 9-7.

In the second game, the Eagles had seven safeties but never crossed home plate in losing to the Oilers, 2-0.

The split leaves the Eagles at 36-14, 12-6 in GLIAC play. Findlay is 14-22, 7-7 in conference action.

AU found itself in a unique position in the first inning of the first game. After scoring once in the top of the first, the Eagles watched as Findlay got to ace righthander Josie Nelson for seven runs and nine hits in that first at bat. There are weeks when that’s what Nelson allows in a three-game stretch.

After that rocky first frame, Nelson collected herself and allowed no runs and seven hits over the final six innings. The Eagles scored four times in the second and added three runs in the third. An insurance run in the fourth made it 9-7.

The win gives Nelson a 22-5 record. She didn’t walk a batter and fanned six.

Katie Harlamert pitched a complete game for Findlay. She was touched for 11 hits and nine runs, five earned.

Sophomore catcher Nicole Placie had one of the finest games of her career, going 2-for-4 with two runs scored and three RBI. Placie belted a double and a triple. Ashland had five extra-base hits. Findlay had 16 hits – all singles.

AU took the lead for good in third. Placie tied the game, 7-7 with a two-run triple to right center. She scored the go-ahead run on a single by senior second baseman Shay Mulford.

Junior first baseman Colleen Devery was 2-for-2 with a triple. Sophomore third baseman Sara Mathes was 3-for-3 with a double and two RBI.

Mulford provided much of the offense in the second game, going 3-for-4. But the AU leadoff hitter never got to home plate. The Eagles’ timely hitting deserted them – AU stranded 10 runners in the second game.

Ashland outhit the Oilers, 7-5, but UF did enough to push across two runs in the fourth inning. The key hit came from third baseman Heather Post, who had a two-run single. Post and shortstop Brooke Bower had two hits each.

Junior righthander Leslie Eberhardt was saddled with the loss. She went seven innings, allowing two runs on five hits with two walks and eight strikeouts. Eberhardt is 14-9.

Stacy Sharp pitched the shutout for the Oilers. She walked three and struck out 10. Sharp is 6-10.

Next up for AU is the GLIAC tournament. That event will be played next weekend, May 2-4, at Saginaw Valley State.