EMORY, Va. — The Marietta College softball team opened the 2016 season by splitting a pair of one-run games Saturday (Feb. 27) afternoon. The Pioneers downed host Emory & Henry 3-2 and then lost to Case Western Reserve 2-1 in eight innings.
The Pioneers offense wasted no time flexing its muscle as
Rachel Montgomery (Massillon, Ohio/Perry) made Emory & Henry (2-3 overall) pay for a defensive miscue as she crushed a two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning.
Cierra Bloom (Dennison, Ohio/Claymont) reached on an error and was sacrificed to second. Batting third in the lineup, Montgomery promptly deposited the ball over the leftfield fence.
Marietta made it 3-0 in the third inning.
Kaitlin Klinchock (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mount Lebanon) delivered a two-out RBI single plating
Brianna Finck (New Lexington, Ohio/Crooksville).
Alison Kach (Greenwich, Conn./Greenwich) (1-0) cruised through the first five innings in the circle. The Wasps finally got to Kach in the sixth. Emory & Henry loaded the bases with a pair of singles and a walk. A wild pitch scored the first run and a second scored on an infield groundout making it 3-2.
Kach went the distance scattering five hits over 7.0 innings. She allowed two earned runs with one walk and seven strikeouts.
In the second game of the day, Marietta's
Jocelyn White (Gibsonia, Pa./Hampton) and Case Western's Annie Wennerberg went toe-to-toe in a classic pitching duel. With nothing but zeros on the board through the first five innings, Case finally got on the board in the sixth.
Defense was the Pioneers' downfall. An error led to the Spartans unearned run in the sixth. Another miscue would cost Marietta the game in the eighth inning as Case won the game with an unearned run.
After falling behind 1-0, the Pioneers answered right back in the top of the seventh. Klinchock led off with a double. Following a walk to
Morgan McElwain (New Brighton, Pa./Riverside),
Alexis Reese (Canton, Ohio/Perry) singled up the middle driving in Klinchock to knot the score at 1-1.
Playing the International Tie Breaker Rule in extra innings, a runner was placed at second base to start the eighth inning. Two strikeouts and a ground out ended MC's eighth. In the bottom of the frame, Case executed the sac bunt moving the runner to third. An infield error on the next hitter allowed the winning run to score.
White (0-1) went 7.1 innings and allowed two unearned runs on six hits. She walked one. Wennerberg (1-1) gave up one run on five hits in 8.0 innings of work. She walked two and struck out 10.
Marietta is back in action on Sunday (Feb. 28) with games against Case Western at 12:30 p.m. and Emory & Henry at 2:30 p.m. Fans can follow all the Pioneer teams all year long at
pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at
facebook.com/MariettaCollege and @MariettaPioneer on Twitter and Instagram.
