FT. MYERS, FL – The Wilmington College softball team secured a winning spring break trip with two wins, in two different fashions, Thursday.
WILMINGTON 24, ROCKFORD 2 (FIVE INNINGS)
Wilmington jumped on the Regents out the gate as the first 10 hitters reached, and the Fightin' Quakers led 8-0 before the first out was recorded. WC hit around twice in the inning, scoring 14 runs on 12 hits with 13 of the runs being earned.
After a scoreless second inning, the scoring barrage continued with three runs in the third and seven runs in the fourth.
Sophomore Becca Carpenter, 3-1, (South Charleston, OH/Southeastern) allowed just one run on five hits with three strikeouts in four innings of work.
Senior Jessie Stewart (Fredericktown, OH/Highland), junior Olivia Bauer (Willard, OH/Willard) and sophomore Whitney Edwards (Frankfort, KY/Franklin County) all had three RBI and three runs scored in the win.
Six different players – senior Megan Warren (Grove City, OH/Grove City), freshman Allison Pierce (Troy, OH/Troy), sophomore Sawyer Hooper (Leesburg, OH/Wilmington), junior Kerrie Trautman (Hartville, OH/Field), freshman Taylor Hill (New Concord, OH/John Gless) and freshman Shaylee Carson (Leesburg, OH/Fairfield Local) – all drove in two runs for Wilmington.
Every Wilmington player reached base and all but three players crossed the plate for the Fightin' Quakers.
WILMINGTON 2, NAZERETH 1
A two-out, infield hit by Hill, on her birthday, brought home the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning to lift Wilmington to the 2-1 win over the Golden Flyers.
Junior Sydney Kelly (Cincinnati, OH/Sycamore) reached on a one-out error, and pinch runner Kennedy Metz (Russia, OH/Russia) moved to second via a sacrifice bunt by Trautman. A wild pitch moved Metz to third just a pitch before Hill beat out a slapper to shortstop.
The winning run enabled Wilmington to brush off allowing the tying run to score in the top of the inning. Nazereth put the Fightin' Quakers under immense pressure in the sixth inning as the Golden Flyers had runners on second and third inning with no outs.
However, freshman Megan Joyner (Worton, MD/Kent County), who came on in relief, following the one out single, slammed the door. She coerced a ground ball to the pitcher, a strikeout and groundout to get out the inning.
Wilmington took the lead in the second inning on a throwing error that enabled Warren to score from second.
Carpenter, who left the game with the lead, didn't allow a run in five innings of work with five strikeouts. Joyner, 2-2, earned the win, allowing one earned run in two innings.
Six different players – sophomore Savannah Hooper (Leesburg, OH/Wilmington), sophomore Chandler Fields (Delaware, OH/Rutherford B. Hayes), Hill, Stewart, Warren, and Edwards – all recorded hits.
Wilmington (5-3) returns to action 3 p.m. Wednesday, hosting Thomas More in non-conference action.
