Resilient Eagles Return To Win Column, Sweep Storm At Home

Ashland University head softball coach Emlyn Knerem saw the Eagles she knows she has on Friday (April 22) at Brookside Park.
 
The Eagles earned their first two Great Midwest Athletic Conference wins on Friday, topping Lake Erie 4-2 and 4-3 in 12 innings. Ashland improves to 8-17 overall and 2-10 in the conference, while the Storm is 11-23, 6-10.
 
"I just told them, I was so incredibly proud of the fight they showed, and the battle that they showed," Knerem said. "That is the team that we are, and that is the team we haven't been showing the last couple of weeks.
 
"They stayed with one another. That was two big wins. We really needed that."
 
Ashland's 12-inning game was its longest since another 4-3, 12-inning victory at home vs. Grand Valley State on March 24, 2019.
 
WHAT HAPPENED

• Lake Erie scored a run in the top of the first inning in Game 1, then junior pitcher Josie Duncan stranded runners at first and second after they reached to begin the second.
• Keeping the game at 1-0 led to Ashland taking a 2-1 advantage in the bottom of the third on a two-run single from freshman first baseman Lily Rockwell. The Storm knotted the score at 2 with a run in the top of the fifth.
• The score remained 2-2 until the bottom of the sixth, when senior third baseman Alexis Lavdis rapped a two-run single to right center.
• "I know when I have runners on, I try my hardest to hit them in, because I know Josie's pitching her butt off out there," Lavdis said.
• Duncan (6-14) made that score hold up, authoring a complete-game six-hitter and allowing two runs and two walks. Sophomore catcher Jordyn Severns was 2-for-3 and scored a run in the victory.
• In Game 2, the Storm jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the second, then Ashland tied the game in the bottom of the fifth when Rockwell served up a run-scoring single.
• The game stayed at 1-1 going into the 10^th inning, where the international tiebreaker started. Lake Erie scored a run in the top of the frame, then Ashland re-tied the game at 2 on an RBI single from junior right fielder Lauren McMillin.
• Lake Erie scored in the top of the 12^th to take a 3-2 lead, which only set up McMillin again, as her two-run triple in the bottom of the 12^th gave AU the doubleheader sweep.
• "It feels amazing," said McMillin. "That's what we've been waiting for for weeks, and it just feels amazing. Our pitchers did a great job."
• McMillin was 3-for-6 with a triple and three RBIs in the nightcap, and is hitting .397 with 13 RBIs, both team highs, this spring.
• "She just wanted to come in this year, and she was excited to play," Knerem said of McMillin, who hadn't played a full collegiate season due to the COVID-19 pandemic (2020) and injury (2021). "You could see early in the season just how much fun she was having because of what she missed last year. She's been great defensively. Offensively, too, she is not a timid hitter."
• Senior center fielder Jamie Rutherford was 2-for-5 in Game 2. After senior Hannah Fricke started and allowed five hits, a run and no walks in the first six innings, Duncan (7-14) went the other six frames, yielding four hits and two unearned runs.
• "We have a lot of potential," Lavdis said. "That is the team that I know. That is how we can play."

 
UP NEXT
Ashland will stay at home on Saturday (April 23) at 1 p.m. against Hillsdale (24-17, 12-1). That will be the Eagles' Senior Day.