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AU Softball Goes 2-2
in Tennessee |
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By Paul Carmany, AU Sports Information The Ashland University softball team traveled to Tusculum College in Greeneville, TN for this weekend’s (Mar. 18-19) Comfort Inn Classic and split its four contests. The Eagles, now 11-5, took home second place. The host Pioneers, who won three of four weekend matchups, were declared the tournament winners. AU’s first contest on Friday against Alderson-Broaddus was a pitchers’ duel between the Eagles’ Jamie Williams and the Battlers’ Casie Waskey. Neither team could plate a run through the first seven innings. Ashland senior Michelle Congrove scored the game’s first tally on a wild pitch with two outs in the top of the eighth. Alderson-Broaddus answered with a run of its own, sending the contest to the ninth inning. In the ninth, both Bree Beabout and Kristen McGaughey had RBI singles and Jennifer Pistone knocked in a run by being hit by a pitch with the bases full. The Battlers scored twice in the bottom of the ninth, but Williams prevented any further damage and won for the seventh time this season. The final score was 4-3. Williams went the distance, scattering eight hits and striking out a career-high 14 batters while walking none. Jill Allerding went 2-for-3 to aid the Eagles’ offensive effort. Ashland’s second contest on the classic’s opening day pitted the Eagles against the host school. Amanda Thomas, who was 2-for-2 with a double, scored on an error in the bottom of the fourth to knot the score at 2. However, the Pioneers scored three times in the final two innings off of Jennifer Alderson to pull out a 4-1 win. Alderson, who pitched a complete game, fell to 2-3. Ashland opened Saturday’s play against Alderson-Broaddus. While the two teams’ first contest had remained scoreless until the eighth inning, the Battlers wasted no time in this game. They scored single runs in each of the first two innings off of AU starter Sarah Holets. That proved to be all the offense that A-B would need, as the Eagles could not bunch any of their seven hits together. The Battlers won, 2-0, and finished the weekend with a 3-3 season record. Thomas continued her solid offensive weekend by going 2-for-4 in the leadoff spot. Holets fell to 1-1 with the loss. The Eagles’ final contest of the weekend was another matchup with Tusculum. AU managed just three hits, including none in the final four innings, but still pulled out a 3-2 victory, becoming the only team to defeat the Pioneers (16-11) in the classic. Nicole Placie got the Eagles started with an RBI single in the top half of the first. AU’s biggest blow was a two-run double by Alderson in the third. Tusculum came right back with two runs of its own in the bottom of the third, but Jamie Williams kept the Pioneers at bay the rest of the way. Williams, now 8-1, earned the complete game win, yielding just five hits. AU is slated to open its home schedule Wednesday (Mar. 23) versus Walsh (6-5). The doubleheader will get underway at 3:30 p.m. |