The #14 Aquinas softball team wrapped up its eight-game road trip in Lima, Ohio with a doubleheader against UNOH on Sunday (Apr. 24). The Saints bounced back with a 12-1 game one win after being swept by Indiana Tech yesterday, but then fell short in game two 5-1 for the series split. AQ now sits at 30-8 (10-4 WHAC) on the season, while UNOH has a 17-15 (12-6 WHAC) record.
GAME 1: Aquinas 12, UNOH 1
The Saints scored early and often in game one, jumping out to a 4-0 lead after the first frame.
Courtney Hardin opened the game with a double and advanced to third on a wild pitch before
Darrien Roberts brought her in on an RBI single. Two more singles by
Kaelyn Stafford and
Carson Hendrickson loaded the bases for
Jordan Humitz, who plated two runs on a knock to the opposite field.
Ashley Snyder got the sixth hit of the inning to bring in Hendrickson.
Three more runs for AQ scored in the third inning to extend the lead out to seven. After Stafford walked and Hendrickson reached on an error, Humitz made the Racers pay with her sixth home run of the season that went over the right field fence for three more RBI.
The lone UNOH run came in the bottom half of the third inning and it was unearned due to an AQ error.
Leah Ash (13-3) pitched six strong innings in the circle and got the win after only allowing the one unearned run, while scattering six hits and striking out three.
Another five runs scored for the Saints with one coming in the sixth inning and four scoring in the seventh. Snyder singled in Stafford for the one run in the sixth frame. Then in the seventh, hits by Roberts and
Izzy Dawson brought up Stafford, who smoked her team-leading seventh home run of the season over the left field fence. The final run was scored by
Emily Cline on a single to center field by
Leah Vaughan.
Nina Bennett came in to pitch the final inning for Aquinas, allowing one hit and getting her three outs on a strikeout and two flyouts.
Six different Saints had multi-hit games with Stafford leading the way at three. Roberts, Dawson, Humitz, Snyder, and Cline had two hits a piece as AQ totaled 16 in the game. Humitz tied a season-high with five RBI as Stafford drove in three and Snyder brought in a pair.
GAME 2: UNOH 5, Aquinas 1
The second game was a pitching duel until the fourth inning when the Racers got on the board with two runs. UNOH also scored two more in the fifth inning to take a 4-0 lead.
Kayla Fessenden (11-4) lasted four and a third innings in the loss, giving up four runs on six hits and two walks to go with three strikeouts.
Aquinas scored its one run in the sixth inning as Hardin got on base after being hit by a pitch and eventually scored on an error when Dawson put the ball in play.
The Racers added one more unearned run in the sixth inning for the eventual 5-1 win.
Grace Maguire came in for Fessenden in the fifth and pitched the remaining one and two-thirds innings, while allowing the unearned run on two hits with one strikeout.
Aquinas has a busy last week of the regular season with eight more games scheduled to be played. It starts on Tuesday (Apr. 26) with a home doubleheader against Lourdes at the Gainey Athletic Complex, beginning at 3:00 PM.
