The Aquinas softball hosted Saint Francis in a non-conference doubleheader at Cornerstone on Sunday afternoon (Mar. 31). Four home runs for the Saints in the first game and a walk-off single by Taylor Borkowski in the second, surged Aquinas past the Cougars for the two-game sweep. AQ beat Saint Francis by scores of 13-9 and 7-6 to improve to a 4-2 overall record.
In the first game, a two-run homerun in the first inning and another run in the second gave the Cougars the 3-0 lead heading to the bottom of the second. With Courtney Hardin on base from a single and Sydney Dawson from being hit by a pitch, Taylor Borkowski homered to center field to earn 3 RBIs and tie the score.
Aquinas jumped right back into it in the bottom of the third as the second batter and designated player Jordan Humitz singled to right field. Hardin walked putting two players on as Darrien Roberts then hit a home run to right center.
Saint Francis scored five in the top of the fourth to head to the bottom of the inning with an 8-6 lead. With two outs, Kallie Sears got walked and stole second before Izzy Dawson doubled to center field, scoring Sears and earning an RBI. Humitz up to bat, hit another home run for the Saints putting them up by one run.
In the top of the fifth, the Cougars scored an unearned run tying the game at nine. AQ came into the bottom of five with some fire. Leigha Morse walked before Roberts came to the plate again for Aquinas hitting her second home run of the game scoring two. With a 10-8 lead, I. Dawson singled to center field scoring Borkowski who walked and Wila who reached on an error. A scoreless last two innings for either team earned AQ the 13-9 victory.
In the second game for the Saints, the Cougars got off to a hot start scoring two runs in each of the first three innings. Aquinas only tallied one in the first after I. Dawson doubled and Humitz doubled (scoring Dawson). Saint Francis led 6-1 heading into the fifth.
AQ scored two in each the fifth (Borkowski and Haley Myers) and sixth (Taylor Charon and Borkowski) putting the Saints down one to heading into the seventh. The Cougars hit a single in the top of the inning before Aquinas left fielder Breanne Adamczak had a great snag to send AQ to the bottom of the inning.
Sears singled up the middle to start the bottom of the inning, before Humitz singled to right field. A fly out advanced Sears to third and Kim Sosnowski came in to pinch run for Humitz. With two outs, Saint Francis went for the win as Sosnowski attempted to steal second. Sosnowski was ruled safe at second scoring Sears on the throw tying the game 6-6.
Adamczak walked and with runners at first and second, Borkowski singled to center field scoring Sosnowski. Borkowski earned the walk-off single and won the game for Aquinas and finished the second game hitting 4-4.
Aquinas pitcher Grace Maguire finished game two entering after 2.2 innings, allowing no runs, only two Cougar hits, and three strikeouts. Saint Francis drops to 2-8 overall after today's two losses.
The Saints take the field again next Friday (Mar. 19) as AQ travels to Rosemont, Illinois to take on Roosevelt in another non-conference doubleheader starting at 12:00 PM ET.
