No. 3 softball mercies No. 7 Falcons in five innings, advances in winner's bracket
Softball won in a mercy for the third time in four games Wednesday by beating Bowling Green 8-0 in five innings in the second round of the Mid-American Conference tournament.
Falcons sophomore starting pitcher Paris Imholz didn’t even make it out of the first inning, in which the Chippewas scored their first four runs.
“It was an impressive game, an impressive way to start the tournament,” said Head Coach Margo Jonker. “But, it’s only one game.”
Senior Macy Merchant who leads the team with a .422 batting average, led off the bottom of the first inning in Akron’s Firestone Stadium with a bunt single and came around to score after senior Brogan Darwin’s single with no outs.
Junior Cory DeLamielleure followed the Darwin single with a sacrifice fly, scoring junior Raechel Zahrn. Sophomore Trista Cox singled to score another, making it 3-0 when Imholz was taken out of the game after 1/3 of an inning for sophomore Jamie Kertes.
Kertes only allowed one earned run in her three and 1/3 innings before handing the ball back to Imholz in the fourth. Poor defense was the reason Kertes gave up three unearned runs due to three errors from, which outnumbered the team’s two hits on the night thanks to the pitching of senior Kara Dornbos.
“We came out with a lot of passion, a lot of fire,” Dornbos said. “I am just so proud of my teammates.”
No. 7 Bowling Green beat No. 6 Ohio Wednesday afternoon to advance to play No. 3 Central Michigan in the winner’s bracket of the MAC Tournament. Bowling Green has not been eliminated since the MAC Tournament is a double-elimination tournament.
CMU will seek its fifth victory in six games when it plays No. 2 Kent State Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in the quarterfinals of the MAC Tournament. The Chippewas split the season series with the Golden Flashes in the regular season in early April.
“Kent State is a good team,” Dornbos said. “We need to go out there and keep that intensity up and just play our game, play Chippewa softball.”
Merchant would add another run in the second, as she went two-for-three with three runs scored and a stolen base.
The Chippewas would tack on their final three runs in the bottom of the fourth after Merchant and Zahrn both reached on errors and junior Brittney Horan and Darwin had back-to-back singles. Darwin is hitting .484 and has 15 hits in her past 10 games.
A single by DeLamielleure drove in Horan and Darwin, giving CMU the necessary eight run lead to mercy BGSU in the next inning.
Dornbos didn’t allow a runner on base in the top of the fifth inning, securing the victory. She allowed only three base runners in her five innings pitched and is 13-11 with a 2.84 ERA after Wednesday’s one hour and 14 minute victory.
