March 26, 2010

RedStorm softball splits with Campbellsville

Rio Grande --- The University of Rio Grande RedStorm softball team squared off with defending Mid-South Conference regular season champion Campbellsville in an early season showdown series at Stanley Evans Field on Friday afternoon. Rio drew first blood, winning the first game, 6-1. Campbellsville responded with a 10-0 shutout in game two.

Rio Grande (13-9, 7-3 MSC) scored two unearned runs in the first inning to take a 2-1 lead and that would prove to be all it would need to get the win in the opener.

Campbellsville (18-12, 8-2 MSC) scored first in the top of inning number one. Emma Napier led off with a single. Two batters later, Napier was singled home by Bailey Dillender to make the score 1-0.

Rio blew the game open with four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. Senior leftfielder Leah Hamman (Lexington, OH) started the scoring in the frame with a solo home run, her fifth of the season, to give Rio a 3-1 lead. Sophomore hurler Anna Smith (Ross, OH) would later crush a three-run home run to left field to give the RedStorm a 6-1 advantage.   The blast was the third of the year for Smith.

Senior catcher Kaylyn Heading (Hilliard, OH) added an RBI hit to the Rio cause.

Dillender had two hits to lead the Tigers.

Smith (8-6), after a slow start in the pitcher's circle, scattered five hits and allowed only one run in getting the complete game victory. She struck out five and walked two.

Allison Horton (11-8) took the loss for the Tigers. She went six innings, giving up seven hits and six runs (one earned) with six strikeouts.

Game two was a different story. Campbellsville held a 1-0 lead until the fifth inning and then it was their turn to break the game open. The Tigers plated four runs in the fifth, two more in the sixth and three in the seventh for good measure.

All tolled Campbellsville collected 16 hits in the second game. Rio was held to three hits. Freshman leftfielder Kaitie Stewart (Pleasant Hill, OH) tallied two of three hits for the RedStorm in the defeat.

Napier was the big hitter for Tigers in game two as she went 3-for-4, including two doubles and a triple with three runs scored and three RBI's. Morgan Bullock added three hits with an RBI and Horton and Jennifer England notched a pair of RBI's each. 

Horton held the RedStorm in check in game two as she blanked them over seven innings and posted four strikeouts and one walk.

Rio sophomore hurler Allison Mills (West Chester, OH) had a personal three game winning streak snapped with the loss. Mills (5-3) went the distance and allowed all 16 hits and 10 runs, with five walks and four strikeouts. 

It was the fifth consecutive doubleheader in which Rio Grande has earned a split.

"It was a tale of two tapes so to speak," Rio Grande head coach David Pyles said. "We kind of reversed roles with them - we just didn't hit the second game, plain and simple, they hit and we didn't and it's a whole lot easier on them to step in the batter's box when they get a lead and a they're a lot more relaxed if we don't put pressure on them."

"We've just got to hit the ball better," Pyles added. "Overall, seven hits (in the first game), we didn't hit great the first game. We just got the key hits and sometimes that's good, because earlier in the year we had games where we weren't getting key hits."

"We're splitting with last season's regular season champion and hopefully it's a good sign for tomorrow and we can come out and play two good ballgames and hopefully get two (wins)," Pyles said.

Rio Grande and Campbellsville will close out the four-game series with a doubleheader on Saturday. Game one is set to get underway at 12 p.m. Stretch Internet will have play-by-play coverage beginning at 11:55 a.m.