Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 The late-season beat keeps going on for Ashland University's softball team.
With 1-0 and 8-3 wins on Saturday (April 16) at Lake Erie, the Eagles have won seven consecutive games, won 12 of their last 15 games and improve to 22-16 overall and 12-5 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
In short order, Ashland has gone from being on the edge of qualifying for the GLIAC Tournament to sitting in third place in the league standings. The top eight teams in the conference go to the conference tourney, April 29-May 1 in Findlay, Ohio.
The Storm is 12-20, 4-12.
Game 1 wasn't decided until the top of the fifth inning, when junior right fielder Jenny Raguz hit an RBI single for the contest's only run. Senior pitcher Sarah Alley made that run stand up, recording a complete-game five-hit shutout with four strikeouts and a walk.
Alley, who won career game No. 50 on Saturday, has won five straight decisions, and is 8-1 in her last nine decisions.
Junior shortstop Alexis Van Horn was 3-for-3, and sophomore third baseman Marissa Caraballo 2-for-3.
Ashland came up with three crooked numbers in Game 2 for all the runs it would need – four in the first and two each in the second and third. Van Horn and Raguz hit back-to-back home runs in the second.
Raguz was 2-for-3 with two RBIs, and junior second baseman Kalene Freshour drove in three runs.
Freshman pitcher Hannah Stroe allowed eight hits and three runs and struck out four in five innings to move to 5-6, and senior Brittany Flanigan finished with two perfect innings of relief.
Ashland is 3-0 with a suspended game through seven innings in the first four of 12 consecutive road contests to end the 2016 season. The Eagles' next twinbill away from Ashland will be Tuesday (April 19) at 3:30 p.m. against Findlay (26-14, 12-6).
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