April 20, 2010

RedStorm softball splits with Cedarville

Rio Grande --- The University of Rio Grande RedStorm softball team squared with old American Mideast Conference rival Cedarville at Stanley Evans Field on Tuesday afternoon and the two teams played to a split. Rio Grande won the first game, 5-1 behind the outstanding pitching of Anna Smith while Cedarville took the nightcap, 7-5.

Rio Grande (27-19) scored three unearned runs in the bottom of the second inning to take a 3-0 lead and never looked back as those runs would be all that Smith would need. Senior centerfielder Leah Hamman (Lexington, OH) came away with a big two-run double in the frame. She was 2-for-2 in the game with a triple, a double, a walk, a stolen base and she was hit by a pitch. 

Smith (15-13) helped her own cause by clubbing a solo home run in the third inning. The blast was her seventh of the season. Freshman leftfielder Kaitie Stewart (Pleasant Hill, OH) continued to swing a hot bat as she went 2-for-3 with an RBI. 

Senior catcher Kaylyn Heading (Hilliard, OH), sophomore first baseman Chelsie Brooks (North Lewisburg, OH) and sophomore rightfielder Marissa Lennox (Gahanna, OH) all went 1-for-3. 

Smith, the reigning Mid-South Conference Pitcher of the Week, held Cedarville (20-23) to only three hits in the first game. She struck out seven and walked two. 

Jenna Fox paced the Lady Jacket offense, going 2-for-3. Missy Murphy was 1-for-3 with an RBI.

Emily Young (5-8) took the loss for Cedarville as she gave up eight hits and five runs (two earned) with two strikeouts and one walk. 

In game two, Cedarville scored two runs in the top of the fourth frame on a double by Murphy. Rio answered back with two runs in the bottom half of the inning to tie the game at 2-2. Freshman second baseman Katie Fuller (Hamilton, OH) ripped a two-run double to bring in both runs.

The Lady Jackets took the lead for good with four runs in the fifth, thanks in large part to Paige Stewart, who smoked a three-run triple to the wall in right-center field. Stewart would later score on a wild pitch. She was 3-for-4 with three runs scored and three RBI's.

Rio cut the deficit to 6-3 in the bottom of the sixth on a single from Hamman. The Lady Jackets would get that run back in the top of the seventh on a run-scoring double off the bat of Meghan Creech. 

The RedStorm would score twice in the seventh and had the tying run at the plate when the final out was recorded. Smith had a run-scoring double in the inning.

Hamman was 2-for-4 with an RBI and a stolen base and freshman rightfielder Jessica Gall (Mount Vernon, OH) also went 2-for-4 with a steal. 

The RedStorm collected 11 hits total in the second game, but could not string together enough key hits as they left 10 runners on base. 

Junior shortstop Amber Bowman (Hebron, OH) was 1-for-4 with a double. Stewart was 1-for-4 while Brooks, sophomore Nicole Sargent (Pataskala, OH) and freshman third baseman Jaymie Rector (Heath, OH) had one hit each.

Sophomore Allison Mills (West Chester, OH) took the loss for the RedStorm. Mills (12-5) allowed 12 hits and seven runs with five strikeouts and three walks. 

Murphy (6-7) picked up the win for Cedarville. She gave up 11 hits and five runs, while walking four in seven innings. 

The second game loss snapped a nine-game winning streak for the RedStorm.

Rio Grande head coach David Pyles was pleased with the performance of Smith in the first game. "Anna, when she's on, she's as good any pitcher in this conference and this conference has a lot of strong pitching," Pyles said. "She was definitely on today."

"I was just very proud of her for throwing that first game," Pyles added. "She's coming off conference pitcher of the week last week, so it was a good day for Anna."

Pyles thought his team may have lost a little bit of its edge in the second game. "I was a little disappointed in the fact, I think we came out a little overconfident and a little flat in the second game," said Pyles. "Once they go up on us, then we go in and start having much better at-bats and more determined, but we were just too far behind."

"We left too many runners on, we had a lot of hard balls hit right at them," Pyles added. "It was just one of those days, Allison did not have her best stuff, but again we were right there in the game. We get the tying run in the last inning, you're not happy with a split, but at the same time, we didn't play all that bad, so we just got to ready for Thursday and get two from Pikeville." 

Rio will host Pikeville in the final home doubleheader of the season on Thursday (April 22). Game one is slated to get underway at 1 p.m. Stretch Internet will have play-by-play coverage at 12:55 p.m.