Seniors Dornbos, Knoop advances No. 3 softball into MAC tournament semi-finals with 1-0 win against No. 2 Kent State
Senior Kara Dornbos outperformed Kent State Mid-American Conference Pitcher of the Year sophomore Emma Johnson to advance softball to the MAC tournament winner’s bracket final.
Dornbos pitched seven shutout innings and allowed three Golden Flashes hits Thursday in route to the 1-0 victory and her second victory in two days. She didn’t allow a run in yesterday’s five inning 8-0 win against Bowling Green.
“I think Bossy (Dornbos) was the story of that game, throwing a shut-out against a really good offensive team and then defensively, throwing people out at second,” said senior Summer Knoop. “Our defense was killer, that’s all it took.”
But, it also took a solo home run by Knoop in the top of the third to put CMU on the board.
“Hit the first pitch was what I was thinking,” Knoop said. “That’s what I did.”
The home run was Knoop’s first of the season.
“That was unexpected actually,” said Head Coach Margo Jonker. “We haven’t seen too many of those in her career.”
No.3 CMU will play No. 4 Northern Illinois tomorrow at 5:00 in the winner’s bracket final for a spot in the MAC tournament final. The Huskies knocked off top seeded Ball State 3-1 Thursday.
The Chippewas beat NIU in both meetings earlier in the season. Both teams are rolling, as the Huskies has won their last six games and CMU has won five of its last six.
“NIU, right now, is hot,” Jonker said. “They’re playing extremely well, they have nothing to lose.”
Kent State had several opportunities to score, but, couldn’t get a clutch hit with runners in scoring position. It put the leadoff batter on base in the second, third, fourth and fifth innings.
The best shot came in the bottom of the fifth when Freshman Erika Warren doubled to start off the inning and advanced to third with one out. Dornbos would strikeout the next batter and get the final batter to groundout to strand Warren on third.
Warren would be the last Golden Flash to reach base, as Dornbos retired the final nine batters she faced.
Dornbos has pitched all 12 innings for the Chippewas in the MAC tournament and has given up a combined five hits and holding opponents to a .122 batting average.
Knoop had the opportunity to add a few more insurance runs when she came to the plate in the top of the sixth with the bases loaded and two outs, but she flew out to end the inning.
They also had a chance to score in the fifth after back-to-back singles by senior Macy Merchant and junior Raechel Zahrn with two outs. Junior Brittney Horan, who led the team with three hits in Wednesday’s win, fouled out to end the threat.
Merchant led the team Thursday with three of the seven hits, although she failed to score. Her .418 average coming into the MAC tournament was the second highest in the conference and she’s hitting .529 in her last 10 games.
Dornbos is 14-11 with a 2.62 ERA on the year after the victory while her opponent Johnson came into the game leading the MAC in ERA, opposing batting average, and wins, but took the loss Thursday.
