Softball sweeps doubleheader against Kent State
Senior pitcher Rachael Knapp pitches to opposing Kent State player on April 1st at Margo stadium
After playing over 10 innings of scoreless softball, Kent State senior Maddy Grimm had one of the hardest hit balls of the day straight out to dead center heading for sophomore Allison Curtis.
Curtis darted towards the wall, making the catch just before running into the wall at full speed and hitting the ground making the one of the best defensive plays of the afternoon and sparking some much needed energy that would allow Central Michigan to walk-off in the following inning.
"I didn't really realize how close I was to the wall," Curtis said. "I just kind of ran right into it, but it wasn't too bad. I was feeling pretty confident especially after that catch (for the next at bat)."
Curtis said mental toughness was the biggest factor of the game, as it becomes difficult to maintain focus and composure for so many consecutive innings.
"We kept our head in it," Curtis said. "It was pretty intense all game, so it's easier to do when you're really into the game."
In the all-out pitching duel that was game one, that's what it took. Mental toughness and running into walls.
"It's been a long time since we've got two wins in one day against Kent State," said head coach Margo Jonker. "Kudos to our players for getting it done and sticking tough."
Curtis picked up three of the only six hits CMU recorded against the stellar pitching by Kent State senior pitcher Ronnie Ladines who pitched the full game for the Golden Flashes.
Senior ace Rachael Knapp, now 11-5, continued her prowess over Mid-American conference batters. She allowed seven hits, zero errors while striking out a total of 13 batters in the 1-0 win.
"It was long, but I thought we held in there pretty well," Knapp said. "Their batters had seen me a bunch of time, I know my defense had my back."
The CMU bats came alive in the second game against the Golden Flashes, racking up a total of eight runs in just the first four innings before completely running away with the win 9-2.
Junior pitcher Hanna Warren improves to 6-4 on the year as a starter, giving up just two hits while striking out eight batters.
"Hanna did a nice job," Jonker said. "She's totally different than Rachael, so its good going from one to the other because they're so different and Hanna did a nice job of spotting the ball."
Central Michigan improves to 19-9 overall and 4-1 in conference play with the two wins. In addition, the game two win marked the 50th victory in program history against the Kent State Golden Flashes.
The Chippewas face off with Kent State again tomorrow at 1 p.m. at Margo Jonker Stadium to make up the game that was postponed on Friday due to weather.
"We expect tomorrow to be a tough game," Jonker said. Certainly, today was not easy."
