SOFTBALL

The Forester softball team (20-25, 15-19) cruised to a 13-2 win over Bethel in the opener before falling 4-2 to their hosts in the nightcap Tuesday afternoon. The two teams split the first time they met a week ago for the 2-2 series stalemate.

Offense came easily for Rethlake’s crew in game one. It was the 11th time this season HU racked up double-digit hits on their way to scoring a season-best 13 runs. They frontloaded the contest by touching home three times in each of the first three frames for an early 9-0 lead.

The Pilots scored both their runs in the fifth to elude the mercy rule, but the guests put the exclamation point on the win by erupting for four more runs in the top of the seventh for the final 11-run disparity.

Karlee Franklin had a convincing showing in the circle. She went the distance, striking out eight along the way, to notch the win having given up six hits, two runs and three walks.

Offensively, eight different Foresters picked up at least one hit with Breanna Hines, Maddie Goheen and Khloee Gregory each posting two run-scoring base pokes.

Gregory’s was most notable as she clocked one out of Gardner Field in the third and then singled in another run in the seventh. Of Hines’ three hits, two were RBI-singles that knocked in a pair of runs each time. Both of Goheen’s runs-scoring base smacks were singles, the first in the opening frame driving in two runs while she pounded out her second in the seventh adding a third RBI to her total.

Maddie Duvall and Courtney Mason were also active at the plate having tallied two hits and two RBI.

HU’s sticks cooled off in the nightcap. They managed just six hits which included Jo Walker’s RBI-single in the fourth. Bethel scored a pair of runs on either side of HU’s first run for a 4-1 game heading into the seventh where the Foresters scored on an error to make for the 4-2 final.

It wasn’t Huntington’s finest display defensively as they committed four blunders to the tune of three unearned runs. Maddie Turner took the loss. In six innings of work she gave up six hits, four runs, only one of which was earned, and two walks while striking out one.

With only one regular season doubleheader remaining, the Foresters are sitting sixth in the league standings, three games ahead of seventh-place Saint Francis. HU’s final twin bill is Saturday at Indiana Wesleyan.