SOFTBALL

The 6th-seeded HU softball team’s deep run into the Crossroads League Tournament came to an end Friday afternoon on a walk-off homerun by Taylor’s Courtney Moriarty in the bottom of the 12th. The 4-3 loss eliminates Huntington from the tourney as the fourth place team.

The Foresters clustered all of their day’s scoring into the first two frames with Paige Eichelberger’s double knocking in a pair of runs in the first and Audra Klopfenstein tallying her team’s only other RBI with a base poke in the second.

The Trojans also scored in the first for a 3-1 HU lead after two. TU found home again in the fourth to pull within a run. The score would remain 3-2 until the bottom of the seventh when Taylor, down to its last out with empty bases, logged back-to-back hits to draw things even and send the game to extra innings much to the chagrin of Gower and crew.

Neither team posed much of a threat over the next three frames but things finally heated up in the 11th. Two hit batters, an intentional walk and just one out seemed the perfect storm for the Foresters but Taylor’s third pitcher of the frame worked her way out of the pickle to keep things deadlocked at 3s.

Taylor landed runners on the corners with one out in their half of the inning but pitching ruled supreme once again as Lairen Miller, who came on in relief for Meghan Fretz in the seventh, worked her way out of the jam to extend the contest to the 12th where Moriarty finished things off for the Trojans.

Miller was tagged with the loss. She threw the final 4.1 innings and gave up three hits, one run and one walk while striking out two.

Huntington outhit the Trojans 14-9. Eichelberger finished 4-for-6 at the plate to go along with two RBI. Klopfenstein added three hits, two for extra bases, and an RBI while Joelle Beals and Kennedy Krull each posted two hits.

HU wraps up the year with a 24-26 record.