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Box Score 2 COLUMBUS, Ohio – Marietta College maintained its one-game lead in the Ohio Athletic Conference softball standings with a split at Capital University Thursday (April 17) afternoon. The Pioneers are in first place with a 10-4 OAC record and are 19-11 overall.
Capital (17-15 overall, 4-10 OAC) took advantage of a two-hit shutout in game one to defat the Pioneers 2-0. Marietta bounced back to take the nitecap by a 3-2 margin in 10 innings.
Junior Brooke Billings (7-7) tossed the complete-game shutout in the opener to even her record. She allowed only two hits to go along with a pair of walks and seven strikeouts.
Billings allowed the first two hitters to reach base safely in the second and fourth innings and then worked out of trouble, as Marietta couldn't deliver a run-scoring base hit.
The Crusaders scored the only runs of the game in the bottom of the third. Right fielder Ashley Knowles reached on a one-out single up the middle. Centerfielder Kelsey Swain followed with an infield hit. A sac bunt moved both runners into scoring position where leftfielder LeAnna Cotton lined a single to right scoring the two runs.
Junior
(Wooster/Waynedale) smacked a double down the leftfield line tying the game at two.
The game remained deadlocked until the top of the tenth. With one out third baseman
Courtney Kerwood (Nashport/Tri-Valley) laced a single through the left side of the infield. Designated player
Kaitlin Klinchock (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mount Lebanon) reached on a base hit bunt moving Kerwood into scoring position.
Marietta head coach
Jeanne Arbuckle inserted
Michelle Kelley (Stow/Stow-Munroe Falls) to run for Klinchock at first as Curry stepped to the plate. Curry delivered a double to the wall in right-center scoring Kerwood. Kelley was gunned down at the plate and the Pioneers settled for a 3-2 lead heading into the home half of the frame.
O'Hair (10-5), who took over on the mound in the fifth inning for Schlabach, retired the Crusaders in order in the bottom of the inning to earn the win. O'Hair pitched 5.2 innings of no-hit relief. She walked four and struck out two.
Schlabach started the game for Marietta and allowed two runs on six hits in 4.1 innings. She struck out two.
Patznick worked 6.0 innings and gave up two runs on seven hits. She walked four and struck out six. Billings (7-8) took the loss throwing 4.0 innings and allowing one run on six hits. She walked one and struck out two.
Schlabach was 3-for-4 at the plated with a double and two runs batted in. Curry, Bloom and Kerwood each had two hits in the game as the Pioneers finished with 13 as a team.
Marietta is right back on the field Friday (April 18) for a 3:00 p.m. doubleheader against Ohio Northern University. The Polar Bears, fresh off a sweep of Baldwin Wallace Thursday, come to town one game behind the Pioneers in the OAC standings. ONU is currently 9-5 in the conference and 16-15 overall.
Fans can follow the Pioneers all season long at
pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at
facebook.com/MariettaCollege and @MariettaPioneer on Twitter.
