FORT MYERS, Florida – The Wilmington College softball team earned a pair of victories the final day of its spring trip on Thursday, beating perennial national power Central College (Iowa) 6-3 and the State University of New York (SUNY) at Canton 14-2 in five innings.
The Fightin' Quakers, who lost their first two games in Florida in part due to traveling that morning, finished the trip with six consecutive victories.
In game one, neither team scored for the first three innings. The Dutch threatened to score as two runners reached via bunt singles and advanced into scoring position via a double steal. A fielder's choice on a tag by shortstop Hayley Suchland and a flyout ended the inning, however, and the Quakers took advantage, scoring the game's first run on consecutive doubles from Judaea Wilson and Lindsey Carter in the bottom half of the inning. A sacrifice bunt from Suchland advance McKayla Sites, who pinch ran for Carter, Arianna Layne drove home Sites with a no-doubt single to left field.
Up 2-0, a flyout ended the threat for Central in the top of the fifth. Molly Moore then stepped up with one out in the bottom half of the inning. The Dutch employed a slap defense, moving an outfielder into the infield, but it didn't faze the freshman launched a triple over the right fielder's glove, who was playing shallow. A fielder's choice to third that tagged out Moore kept WC off the scoreboard temporarily, but Carter sent her second deep double to left center, scoring Wilson. Suchland then drove home Carter with a single to straight-away center field, giving the Quakers a 4-0 lead.
Consecutive Dutch doubles scored Central's first run in the sixth, but an RBI-single from Moore followed by a bases-loaded walk drawn by Carter put the Quakers up 6-1 after six complete. Central looked to mount a seventh-inning rally as a single and a double ended starting pitcher Alexis Stringfellow's game. Izzy Rothrock relieved her, and after a wild pitch and a walk, she struckout lead-off hitter Haley Bach looking on a full count. A groundout would score another Central run, but the tying run never got on deck as a flyout ended the game.
Stringfellow won her second game of the season, scattering eight hits and three earned runs with one strikeout. Rothrock surrendered a walk with a strikeout to pitch the final inning. For Central, Chloe Dougherty pitched 3.2 innings and took the loss, allowing five hits and two earned runs. Emma Neu and Sabrina Tallman also allowed two runs each in relief.
Offensively, Wilson, Carter and Moore all had multi-hit games with Carter have two doubles and three RBIs. Emma Johnson and Franie Burnett both had multi-hit games for Central in defeat.
In game two, the contest was basically over in the first inning. The Quakers batted around once and almost twice, tallying a whopping 13 hits that include eight starts tallying at least one hit. McKenna Archey, Logann Julian, Samantha Schwab, Suchland and Moore all tallied multi-hit innings.
The Kangaroos would score two runs in the third and one in the fourth, but Wilmington led comfortably throughout the remainder of the five-inning contest. Hillary Huffer earned the win for the Quakers, striking out three and allowing two hits in three innings while Hannah Hall closed out the final two frames. Alaina Beane pitched the entire game for SUNY-Canton, allowing 14 runs (eight earned) on 16 hits.
Wilmington (6-4) will return to Ohio to host Defiance College in a doubleheader at the WC Softball Complex on Tuesday, March 22.
