Aquinas ends RedStorm's post-season run

Rio Grande Sports Information
     INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Who knows the reason why, but it clearly wasn't the same University of Rio Grande team which won on Monday morning and had Marian University on the ropes before suffering a gut-wrenching loss on Tuesday morning.
     In fact, the RedStorm resembled a shell of the team that had won seven straight outings prior to Tuesday's setback at the hands of the eighth-ranked Knights.
     Head coach Chris Hammond's squad managed just two hits and committed four errors which led to four unearned runs in an 8-0 mercy rule-shortened loss to Aquinas (Mich.) College in a loser's bracket elimination game in the Indianapolis Bracket of the NAIA Softball Championship Opening Round, Thursday morning, at Marian Softball Diamond.
     Fourth-seeded Aquinas improved to 42-14 with the victory and advanced to another elimination contest against No. 1 seed Marian later in the day.
     Rio Grande, which was seeded fifth in the five-team, double-elimination tourney and who put Aquinas in the loser's bracket with a 5-2 triumph on Monday, closed its season at 35-18 with the loss.
     The RedStorm surrendered three runs in each of the first two innings and gave up two more markers in the fourth inning to set up the game's premature end.
     Courtney Hardin opened the Aquinas first with a walk, stole second, moved to third on a one-out single by Haley Myers and scored moments later on a wild pitch by Rio junior starter Madison Ogden (Williamsburg, OH).
     Myers was thrown out trying to advance all the way to third on the wild pitch, but the inning stayed alive when Katie Carlson and Darrien Roberts both reached when their consecutive grounders to shortstop were on errored.
     Kaelyn Stafford made the RedStorm pay for the miscues by lining a two-run triple to the gap in right-center for a 3-0 lead.
     In the Saints' second inning, Emma Houseman got things started with a single and stole second before McKenna Hinkle drew a walk to spell the end of the day for Ogden, who had - to that point - thrown every pitch for Rio in the tourney.
     Senior reliever Sydney Campolo (New Lexington, OH) issued a walk to Hardin to load the bases and Kim Sosnowski followed with a two-run single to left.
     Two outs later, Roberts singled home Hardin to make it 6-0.
     Aquinas put the mercy rule in play by scoring twice in the home fourth.
     Myers reached on a one-out single and moved to third when Carlson singled and scooted to second thanks to an error on the same play.
     Roberts followed with a sacrifice fly to center scoring Myers and Stafford added a run-scoring double moments later.
     Rio Grande did nothing offensively against Saints' starter Sophia Pavese, managing just two hits - both singles - and a walk. None of the three baserunners ever reached second base.
     Ogden suffered the loss, allowing three hits, two walks and five runs - three earned - in one-plus inning.
     Pavese struck out four en route to her 18th win in 22 decisions.
     Thursday's game marked the final contest in a Rio uniform for Campolo, Caitlyn Brisker (Oak Hill, OH), Lexi Carnahan (Felicity, OH) and Kali Brickman (Huber Heights, OH).
     Aquinas lost to Marian, 1-0 in nine innings, in its subsequent game, while Marian fell to No. 2 seed and defending national champion Southern Oregon, 9-2, in the championship first final.
     The 17th-ranked Raiders advanced to the NAIA Softball World Series, which begins next week in Columbus, Ga.