SOFTBALL

The HU softball team split its twin bill with the Cougars of Spring Arbor (17-21, 11-15) Thursday afternoon at Cougar Field. After suffering a 6-3 loss in the opener, the Foresters bounced back with a 5-3 win in the nightcap. Gower’s crew split with SAU at home as well to wrap up the season series 2-2 against the Cougars.

With just over a week left in the regular season, Huntington (18-13) is sitting third in the league standings with its 13-8 record.

Both teams hit the ball well in game one but it was the hosts who were able to convert that into runs on the scoreboard at a much higher rate. The Foresters pounded out nine hits to SAU’s 12 and left ten runners stranded.

Kennedy Krull singled in HU’s first run in the top of the first but the advantage was short-lived as the Cougars matched that in their half of the frame. Spring Arbor was back at it in the third by piecing together four hits for three more runs.

Two innings later, the Foresters fired back to pull within a run at 4-3. Pinch hitter Ashley Brown started things off with a single down the left field line. A Joelle Beals’ sac bunt set up Sophia Beachy’s RBI-double after which Casey Lehman found a hole in center field to drive in Beachy for HU’s final run of the contest.

Jordan Burman tacked on two insurance runs by sending one out of the park for her ninth dinger of the year and the 6-3 final.

Lairen Miller took the loss for HU. She went the distance to give up 12 hits, six runs and a walk while striking out three.

Beachy and Lehman each posted two hits and an RBI to pace the Foresters offensively.

The nightcap got off to a quiet start, as the first four frames were scoreless before the visitors finally broke the silence with a two-out rally in the fifth. Beachy registered the first of four straight singles with the third, Meghan Fretz’s shot to left, knocking in the game’s first run. Paige Eichelberger posted HU’s fourth base poke and thanks to a bobble on the play, two more runs came in for a 3-0 HU lead.

Burman got one back for Cougars in the bottom of the frame with her second homer of the day but the Foresters went right back to work in the sixth. This time they plated two runs, one on Beals’ sacrifice fly and the other on Beachy’s RBI-double that bounced over center field fence, to stretch the lead to 5-1.

Huntington’s last two runs in the fifth were of the unearned variety and they begrudgingly returned the favor in SAU’s final at bat. With runners on first and second and two outs, a bobble in center field allowed both Cougars to scurry home to keep things interesting. But Fretz put the kibosh on any sort of heroic comeback by coaxed Jade Nowe to groundout for the last out.

Fretz earned the complete-game win by surrendering eight hits, three runs, only one of which was earned, and three walks while striking out six.

Beachy finished with three of HU’s 11 hits. She also scored once and drove in a run while Eichelberger and Audra Klopfenstein finished with two hits apiece.

The Foresters return home on Friday to host Indiana Wesleyan for a doubleheader at 3PM.