Playing for the first time in nine days due to inclement weather, Ashland University's softball team split a Great Midwest Athletic Conference doubleheader at Ohio Dominican on Tuesday (April 8) – winning 5-4 and losing 8-1.
The Eagles are 20-10 overall and 10-2 in the conference, remain a game behind first-place Tiffin, and are 12-2 in their last 14 games. The Panthers are 16-20, 6-4.
Game 1 featured a quick start for AU, as sophomore right fielder
Delaney Maynard hit a lead-off home run to start the contest – her first of 2025. That homer extended Maynard's hitting streak to nine games, and gave her at least one hit in 21 of her last 22 outings.
Then, with two outs in the second, Maynard delivered again, this time with an RBI single. Senior designated player
Cassidy Shaffer's two-run single later in the second put AU ahead 4-0.
ODU cut its deficit in half with two runs in the third, then made it a 4-3 game with a run in the fourth, but sophomore catcher
Sophia Martin's team-leading fourth round-tripper in the fifth got the Eagles one of those runs back for a 5-3 advantage.
The Panthers scored once in the sixth to get back to a one-run deficit, but left two runners on in the bottom of the seventh looking to at worst tie the game late.
Game 1 was AU's fourth one-run victory of 2025 – one less than in all of 2024.
Tuesday's second game saw Ohio Dominican put up six runs in the first. Martin's second homer of the day and fifth of the season got AU on the board in the second, but the Panthers scored in the fourth and the fifth for the game's final margin.
ROBBINS INCHES CLOSER TO A RECORD…AND THE REST OF THE STORY
- Maynard, Shaffer and Martin each had two hits in Game 1.
- With a stolen base in the opener, junior second baseman Danielle Robbins has 59 as an Eagle – four away from tying Sunny Litteral's program record of 63.
- Shaffer (5-0) went three innings in relief to earn the win, allowing four hits, two runs and two walks. Junior pitcher Delaney Lis picked up her first save of the season after finishing with 1 2/3 scoreless innings.
- Lis (10-3) lost the nightcap, yielding six hits, seven runs and a walk in three innings.
UP NEXT
Back to Deb Miller Field at the Archer Ballpark Complex for another conference doubleheader at noon on Saturday (April 12) vs. Malone (17-7, 5-5). That also will be the Eagles' Senior Day.
