Rosemont, Illinois — The Aquinas women's softball team picked up two wins at the NAIA Leadoff Tournament on Friday (Feb. 3) to bolster a sparking 2-0 record to start the 2023 season.
The Saints first defeated Olivet Nazarene, 8-2, in a battle of two teams that received votes in the NAIA preseason coaches' poll. AQ followed up its season-opening win with an eight-run mercy rule victory over Kentucky Christian, 10-2 in five innings.
The four-day tournament, hosted by Roosevelt, is being held at the The Dome at the Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont, Ill. The Saints are scheduled to play seven games in three days.
Game 1: (RV) Aquinas 8, (RV) Olivet Nazarene 2
Aquinas scored three runs in the top of the first inning following an RBI double by
Carson Hendrickson and a pair of RBI singles by
Haley Myers and
Taylor Charon.
The Tigers recovered two runs in the bottom half to trail 3-2 after the first frame. The Saints countered with
Izzy Dawson smacking a two-run home run in the top of the second inning. Her 22nd career home run at Aquinas.
Pitching took over from there. AQ starter
Leah Ash only allowed two hits and no runs after the first inning. She pitched all seven innings to pick up the complete game and earn her first win of the season. Ash is now 29-11 in the circle for her AQ career.
The Saints tacked on three final runs in the seventh. Myers doubled to left field for two more RBIs and Charon scored Myers on a fielder's choice sacrifice bunt.
Ash picked up three groundouts in the bottom half to seal an 8-2 win.
Hendrickson went for 3-for-4.
Darrien Roberts and Myers each had two hits as well.
Game 2: Aquinas 10, Kentucky Christian 2 (5 Innings)
The Saints scored at least one run in every inning as they ran wild around the bases.
After an RBI single by
Leah Vaughan in the first, an RBI groundout by Roberts and RBI double by Dawson in the second, Aquinas kept scoring with a pair of three-run innings in the third and fourth frames.
Nine different Saints recorded RBIs in the contest. The most exciting was an RBI triple by
Jessica Dobias in the third inning.
Courtney Hardin and Vaughan both went 3-for-3 at the plate with an RBI.
Kentucky Christian forced Aquinas to play the bottom half of the fifth when Jaryn Holtsclaw singled up the middle to bring in two runs and briefly took the Knights out of the mercy-rule range at 9-2. That also broke up the shutout bid for AQ starting pitcher
Grace Maguire.
Maguire struck out the next batter and watched AQ finish the job in the bottom half. Her complete game finished with allowing two runs (neither one earned) on four hits. She faced 20 batters and only tossed 65 pitches, while racking up six strikeouts.
Hendrickson walked with the bases loaded to end the contest at 10-2 in the fifth inning.
Aquinas stole five bases in the win. Hardin swiped three with Roberts and
Ashley Snyder get the other two.
It's the second time in the last five seasons that Aquinas has started a new season with a 2-0 record. The Saints will look to keep the winning streak going tomorrow (Feb. 4) with a three-game slate against Northwestern College (10 a.m.), No. 25-ranked Saint Xavier (2:30 p.m.) and Bethel (4:45 p.m.).
