CLERMONT, Fla. – Wittenberg softball remained unbeaten on the 2014 season with a pair of victories at the Dot Richardson Spring Games, including an extra-innings 4-3 win over Millikin and a 13-0 defeat of Haverford.
Senior Rachel Ross (Westerville, Ohio/South) provided a thrilling walk-off win with an eighth-inning sacrifice fly to score sophomore Loren Combs (Cincinnati, Ohio/Turpin) and break a 3-3 tie.
The hitting heroics were just part of the story for Ross, who also pitched the complete game victory. She allowed just five hits and one walk with three runs, all earned, and one strikeout.
Senior Laura Rose (Riverside, Ohio/Stebbins) kicked off the scoring on an error in the first before both teams went scoreless for a long stretch. Millikin took the lead with three runs in the top of the sixth, and Ross answered with the first of her two sacrifice flies in the bottom half of the inning. Sophomore Kaela Hughes (Columbus, Ohio/Watterson) evened the score in the bottom of the seventh with an RBI triple to send the game to extras.
Rose finished the game 3-for-4 at the plate with a triple and Ross was 1-for-2 with two RBIs.
It was a very different story in game two as the Tigers exploded for seven runs in the third and tacked on the run-rule-invoking eighth run in the fifth inning.
Combs went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and Rose posted a 1-for-2 line with two RBIs. Freshman Casey Hobbs (Fairborn, Ohio/Carroll) also knocked in a run on a 1-for-2 game, while Hughes scored twice after going 1-for-1 with two walks. Junior Shelby Knapp (Springfield, Ohio/Springfield) swiped two bases among a total of six stolen bases for the Tigers.
In the circle, freshman Alyssa Durette (Geneva, NY/Geneva) moved to 2-0 with a complete-game, two-hit shutout. She surrendered no walks and struck out two batters on the way to the win.
Wittenberg takes a break on Wednesday before resuming against Simmons at 11 a.m. on Thursday, March 13, at the Foundation Academy in Winter Garden, Fla., followed by a 1 p.m. game against Wesleyan (Conn.).
John Strawn '07