CLERMONT, Fla. – The Carroll University softball team got back in the win column to snap a four-game skid, but fell to nationally-ranked opposition on Tuesday during The Spring Games.
GAME 1
The Pioneers (4-7) snapped a losing streak and took down Ohio Wesleyan by a score of 8-3. The Pios smashed 12 hits and were led by
Andrea Kuhne in the circle.
Kuhne replaced
Breanna Roberts early in the outing and kept OWU to just one run on seven hits for the remainder of the game. On the offensive side,
Sydney Raddeman went 3-4 with an RBI while scoring twice.
Lauren Harshbarger had two RBI and scored twice as well. The Pioneers stole three bases and left just four runners on base all game.
Roberts allowed the first two earned runs of the game, and Kuhne stepped in and walked her first batter, but got the Pios out of the jam with a ground ball to short.
Carroll jumped right away onto OWU, scoring their first run from
Reagan Goluch's double to left. Goluch scored on an error as
Kiana Johnson was stealing second, and
Kaitlyn Reed provided the RBI single up the middle to score Johnson from second.
Up 3-2, Ohio Wesleyan tied the game up after a leadoff double, and the score remained tied until the bottom of the third. Harshbarger led off with a double to center and Goluch sent her in.
Carroll tacked on more runs in the bottom of the fourth, with Raddeman and Harshbarger providing more RBI.
GAME 2
The Pioneers (4-8) faced their second nationally ranked program this week with a 2-6 loss to No. 19 Belhaven.
Riley Pavelka surrendered her third-straight loss.
Pavelka started the first 3.1 innings of the game, allowing six runs on seven hits. Raddeman, Johnson, and
Madison Palasz smacked doubles in the game for Carroll, but the Pios recorded seven strikeouts against Belhaven's pitcher.
Carroll was able to get a lead on Belhaven to start the game, with an RBI single from Reed to score Raddeman. Belhaven responded with two runs off Pavelka in the bottom of the first.
Belhaven added a third run in the bottom of the third on a sacrifice fly to left field. Carroll tried to one-up Belhaven with runners on second and third the next inning, but Carroll was left stranded.
A two-run home run mounted the Belhaven lead to 5-1, and an error in the field gave the Blazers their sixth run of the evening.
Abby Curtis scored Palasz in the top of the seventh with two outs, and Raddeman doubled the next at-bat, but the Pios ended the game on a pop fly to second.
Carroll gets a well-deserved day off tomorrow, and will continue their spring break games on Thursday, March 16 taking on Fredonia and Wisconsin-River Falls in the late afternoon.
