The Wilmington College softball team opened Ohio Athletic Conference action with a split with Marietta at the WC Softball Complex.
Wilmington (5-11 overall, 1-1 OAC) won the first game, 7-4, and fell in the nightcap 8-4. The Fightin' Quakers return to the diamond 1 p.m. Sunday to face Franklin in a non-conference doubleheader.
GAME ONE: WILMINGTON 7, MARIETTA 4
Freshman Chandler Fields (Delaware, OH/Rutherford B. Hayes) smacked a game-tying, two-out single in the bottom of the sixth inning, and sophomore Kerrie Trautman (Hartville, OH/Field) blasted a three-run shot to wrap up the sixth-inning scoring to lead Wilmington to the comeback win.
Marietta opened the top of the sixth inning with five straight hits to score three run to take the lead, and it threatened to blow the game wide open. The Pioneers runners on second and third with no outs, but freshman Beth Persicano (Knoxville, TN/Cincinnati Turpin) bowed her back to get back-to-back groundouts back to the circle and ended the inning with a strike out.
After the Pioneers took the lead with a run in the top of the first inning, Trautman's bases loaded single plated two to give Wilmington the lead. The Fightin' Quakers added another run in the fourth on a RBI single by junior Megan Warren (Grove City, OH/Grove City).
Trautman was 2-for-4 with a homerun and a career-high five RBI, while junior Jessie Stewart (Fredericktown, OH/Highland) had a career-high three hits, including a pair of doubles. Warren finished 2-for-4 with a run scored and RBI, and freshman Savannah Hooper (Leesburg, OH/Wilmington) was 2-for-3 with a run scored.
Persicano (2-7) picked up the win, allowing four runs on 12 hits with four strikeouts in seven innings of work.
GAME TWO: MARIETTA 8, WILMINGTON 4
Marietta scored four unanswered runs over the final four innings as the Pioneers broke a 4-4 tie to record the 8-4 win to earn the split.
All of Wilmington's damage came in the four-run third inning with Trautman in the middle of the action. Her two-out, two-run double pulled WC to within a run, and then she scored the tying run on Jess Clutter's (Englewood, OH/Northmont).
Trautman took the loss (3-3), allowing four runs on 11 hits in 5 1/3 innings of relief of starter Caitlin Matthews (Dayton, OH/Chaminade Julienne). In her first career start, Matthews allowed four runs on five hits in 1 1/3 innings.
Senior Allie Noggle (Ashville, OH/Teays Valley) was 2-for-3 with a run scored, while each of the top four hitters in the lineup – Warren, Hooper, Trautman and Clutter – all had a hit.