ALLIANCE, Ohio – The Wilmington College softball team fell victim to yet another walk-off hit as the University of Mount Union defeated the Fightin' Quakers 3-1 in game one and won game two 9-8 in nine innings in an Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) doubleheader on Thursday.
In game one, Megan Crager led off the game with a triple to right center field and scored the game's first run when Hayley Suchland hit an RBI-single to shortstop and beat out the throw to first. Unfortunately for the Quakers, that first inning would account for the team's only run of the game.
Maddie Pidgeon tied the game with a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning and the Purple Raiders went ahead in the bottom of the second by plating another run. Pidgeon would launch her second home run of the game in the third, another solo shot, in the bottom of the third.
Trailing 3-1, Wilmington was held to just two more hits entering the seventh inning when the Quakers mounted a rally. KenDahl Bowles singled and Crager doubled with two outs. A Suchland walk that followed loaded the bases, but a strikeout ended the game.
Wilmington starter Grace Shell took the loss allowing three earned runs with five strikeouts in six innings pitched. Ashley Cascio tallied all but one out for Mount Union to earn her second win of the year while Alexandra Pasco picked up the one-out save.
Crager and Bowles both finished with two hits for Wilmington including both of Crager's hits being of the extra-base variety. Pidgeon, with her two solo home runs, was the only Purple Raider to tally a multi-hit game.
In game two, Wilmington's offense again struck in the first inning as Suchland drove in Crager with a double to left center. Bowles would also join in with an RBI-single to right field that scored Suchland, and a sacrifice fly from Jillia Cook that followed put the visitors on top 3-0. After a scoreless bottom of the first, Hensley launched a three-run home run over the left field fence of 23rd Street Field in the second to double Wilmington's lead.
Both teams would plate a run in the third inning, but the Purple Raiders put together a three-run, four-hit fifth inning thanks in part to a Quaker error to get within three runs. Mount Union would give back one of those runs via its own error in the sixth.
Wilmington's 8-4 lead entering the bottom of the seventh inning wouldn't hold, however, as a two-out, pinch-hit home run from Morgan Riley would second the game into extra innings. After neither team scored in the eighth, Riley would prove the hero once again, as her single with the bases loaded marked the third time in four games the Quakers lost to a walk-off hit.
Shell took the loss as she allowed five earned runs in four innings in relief as Alexis Stringfellow received a no-decision allowing four runs to cross the plate in four innings. Peyton Morrison improved to 7-6 on the year for Mount Union scattering three hits and one unearned run over six innings.
Suchland finished 3-for-5 with an RBI and three runs scored for Wilmington while Cook and Kennedy Clifton also had multi-hit games. Five Purple Raiders finished with two hits each.
Wilmington (17-13, 5-11 OAC) continues its road swing at Anderson University on Thursday.
