SOFTBALL

The Huntington softball team picked up two convincing wins, 9-0, 8-2, against Bethel Thursday afternoon. The wins move the Foresters to 24-20 overall and evened up in league play at 13-13.

Gower’s squad cut the opener two innings short thanks to a big second inning. HU more than batted around to find home seven times. Abigail Reed kicked things off with a lead-off double which proved the first of five straight hits to quickly establish a 3-0 lead. The Foresters would go on to hammer out five more hits before the end of the frame to up their lead to seven.

Breanna Hines got ahold of one in the third, sending it over the center field fence for her first collegiate homer to highlight HU’s two-run inning.

The Foresters posted 14 hits with Hines, Sophia Beachy and Kennedy Krull each logging a pair of base pokes and two RBI each. Jada Crofoot and Reed added two hits apiece and drove in a run while Jenessa Hasty pounded out two singles.

Meghan Fretz tossed the no-hitter through the first four frames giving up three hits and a walk while striking out three for the win before Mallory West offered an inning of hitless, scoreless relief.

Bethel opened up an early 1-0 advantage in the nightcap after their first at-bat, but HU responded in the second with three runs to capture the lead and never give it up. Beachy doubled in Kaela Robey, who was hit by a pitch, and then eventually came around to score on Reed’s sacrifice fly but it was Krull’s dinger, the fifth of her career, that brought the loudest cheer from the hosts’ dugout.

HU added four more runs to their total in the bottom of the fifth which included Adelyn Harsh’s RBI-double and Crofoot’s run-scoring three-bagger. McKyndsea Burke’s first at-bat of the season came in the sixth and saw her find a hole in right-center to knock in her team’s final run of the day.

When all was said and done, Beachy matched the output of her first game with two hits and two RBI. Krull claimed two base pokes and an RBI while Kiera Stacy finished 2-for-3 at the plate.

Harsh spent the first five innings in the circle to pick up the win after giving up five hits, a run and walk while striking out two.

HU is back on their home turf Saturday to host IWU at 1:00 p.m.