SOFTBALL

It was sweet revenge for the Cougars of Saint Francis Friday afternoon at Westendorf Field. After suffering a pair of losses to the Forester softball team earlier this week, they returned the favor by tallying two wins, 5-1, 7-5, over their neighbors to the southwest this afternoon to split the season series at 2-2.

Gower’s crew enjoyed what proved their only lead of the day in the top of the first of game one on Mallory West’s RBI-fielder’s choice. The frame saw HU log back-to-back-to-back singles and an out before West logged her team’s only RBI. No one would have suspected the visitors would manage just one hit the rest of the way as offense was nonexistent after that.

The Cougars, on the other hand, found home five times in the middle innings behind 11 hits much to the chagrin of Lairen Miller who took the loss for the Foresters. She went the distance in the circle with one of the five runs being of the unearned variety.

HU seemed to be on the right track in the nightcap as they jumped out to a 3-0 lead through the first three frames. They would go on to counter USF’s two runs, one in the fourth and another in the fifth, with a pair in the sixth to maintain their three-run advantage before the wheels fell off.

Saint Francis exploded for five runs in their side of the sixth, highlighted by Jordan Schneider’s two-run blast for the go ahead. The Foresters could only watch their lead slipped away as USF cashed in on four of their nine hits to successfully mount the come-from-behind win.

Offensively, Huntington relied on a balanced attack as their first run came by way of an RBI-double by Casey Lehman in the first. Paige Eichelberger and Sophia Beachy each drove in a run in the third, on a ground out and single respectively, before HU scored twice more in the sixth.

West and Audra Klopfenstein each registered a run-scoring base poke in the sixth to round out their team’s scoring in a contest where HU posted six hits. Huntington also collected seven walks and took advantage of three Cougar errors to create scoring opportunities that they just couldn’t convert to runs on the board as they left nine runners on base.

Meghan Fretz was charged with the loss in game two, giving up nine hits and seven runs, six earned, and four walks while striking out four.

The Foresters have little time to regroup before hosting #2 Marian tomorrow at 1PM.