Lima, Ohio – The Saints took the four-hour trip down to Lima for a doubleheader against the Racers of UNOH today (Apr. 20). These two games played a pivotal role in the WHAC standings as UNOH and AQ entered the day as two of the top five teams in the conference. The second through fifth seeds were all extremely close in the standings.
The Racers took game one in five innings, but the Saints continued to have a knack for the dramatic in game two. Aquinas took the game into extra innings and managed to sneak away with a 4-3 win in the ninth inning. The 1-1 split with UNOH ultimately kept the WHAC table in similar standing after today's games.
Aquinas is now 32-10 on the season with a 12-6 conference record.
Game 1: UNOH 11, Aquinas 0 (5 Innings)
The first contest was all Racers as the hosts scored all 11 runs in the first three innings.
Leah Vaughan entered the game in the third inning and shut down UNOH from that point on, but the damage had already been done.
Elizabeth Haunhorst and
McKenna Hinkle were the only two Saints to pick up a hit in the first game. Haunhorst extended her hitting streak to four games with a single in the top of the second.
Despite the final scoreline, errors proved to be AQ's undoing. Only four of the 11 runs scored were earned runs. Seven runs came home as a result of untimely errors.
Game 2: Aquinas 4, UNOH 3 (9 Innings)
AQ took its first lead of the day in the second inning after a fairly quiet first frame.
Courtney Hardin reached on an error and moved around the bases with a steal and a flyout.
Kaelyn Stafford got back into the hit column after a strong day on Thursday, hitting Hardin home for the first run of the game.
Aquinas' unfortunate error streak continued in the bottom of the second as an error with two outs eventually led to two unearned runs, giving UNOH its ninth unearned run of the day and a 2-1 lead.
The Saints managed to take the lead back in the top of the fourth, starting with a leadoff single from Haunhorst. Hardin advanced a pinch-running
Kami Morse with a sacrifice bunt and
Katie Carlson hit a single to put two runners on. A passed ball allowed Morse to score and tie the game right before a single from
Carson Hendrickson gave AQ the lead back.
The back-and-forth game continued in the bottom of the fifth as the Racers put together three singles to tie the game at three. However, the Saints prevented any more damage with an inning-ending flyout to strand two runners.
Hardin singled in the top of the sixth, but that was the last hit for either team until extra innings with both defenses locking in. Following a quiet eighth, the injury bug struck the Racers again in the ninth. An error by the right fielder allowed Stafford to reach second and an RBI single from
Darrien Roberts put AQ back in the lead.
Sophia Pavese went the distance in this one, pitching all nine innings. She delivered three consecutive outs in the bottom of the ninth to secure the much-needed series split. She allowed just seven hits and one earned run over nine innings.
By the Numbers
With hits in each game, Haunhorst extended her hitting streak to five games this afternoon. She also had a team-high of three hits. Roberts was the only other Saint to record multiple hits with two.
After today, both Pavese and
Grace Maguire have 12 wins on the season. Pavese holds an impressive ERA of 2.12 this season with 48 punchouts.
Aquinas continues to find success in extra time this season. AQ has gone to extras on six different occassions and won all six times.
Up Next
The Saints have another important doubleheader tomorrow (Apr. 21) against another top team in the conference. Aquinas will take on Indiana Tech on the road starting at 1:00 p.m.
