Softball mercies UDM in home-opening double-header
Softball continued its dominance against Detroit by sweeping the home-opening double-header by a combined score of 22-4 at Margo Jonker Stadium Wednesday.
Junior catcher Cory DeLamielleure lead her team to a 9-1 mercy in game one after ending the game in the sixth inning with a home run that lead to bigger things at the plate in game two.
“Good to see some hard work pay off," DeLamielleure said. "I kept it real simple, not thinking, just see ball hit ball. We were excited all week to get out here at home.”
Earlier, in game one, the team got started off quickly, adding a run in the first inning and three in the second to jump out to an early 4-0 lead.
Senior Pitcher Kara Dornbos had another complete game shutout, letting up only four hits, leading to her fourth win of the year.
“In the first game, we did a lot of the little things wrong and got away with it," said head coach Margo Jonker. "With a good team, we might struggle with that."
In the second game, the Chippewas turned the bats up in the fourth inning where they scored six runs off of seven hits. DeLamielleure, who DH in the second game, started the rally with a leadoff triple, which was followed by a sacrifice fly by sophomore CarolAnn Sexauer for her third RBI of the game.
With one out, the Chippewas piled on the runs with a double by freshman Katelyn Rentschler, who was batted in with another triple by sophomore Trista Cox. Junior Brittney Horan hit her second home run of the season to bring Cox in.
They would continue to pile on the runs, putting them back into position for the mercy rule to take effect. Junior Chelsea Sundberg would close the game out with a 1-2-3 inning in the fifth after finishing the fourth for junior Morgan Yunker. In an unusual outing for Yuncker, who has a team-leading 1.89 ERA, she let up eight hits and three runs on 3.2 innings pitched.
“Yuncker was struggling a little bit, and I was planning on putting Chelsea in the fifth inning anyways," Jonker said. "I pulled her early because I didn’t think she had her best stuff today."
CMU will now look to carry this momentum into its first home Mid-American Conference series of the year against Buffalo Friday in a double-header, which begins at 1 p.m. at Margo Jonker Stadium.
