Beth Walters

If a tie is like kissing your sister, what does that make a doubleheader split? Better than losing and not as good winning, perhaps, but as spring weather finally arrives in Central Ohio, the Tiger softball team will gladly take the three wins and three losses of last week and move on into NCAC action this week.

The Tigers split with Heidelberg on Monday, split with Mount St. Joseph on Thursday and split with Albion on Sunday, all at home. The top pitching performance of the week was turned in by sophomore Christy Cartaya (Mason, Ohio/Mt. Notre Dame), who shut out Heidelberg 1-0 in the weeks opener. She allowed just five hits and one walk in going the distance for the win. In the nightcap, sophomoreJen Fleming (Dayton, Ohio/Chaminade-Julienne) also tossed a complete game and allowed just one earned run, but a lack of offense and two timely errors contributed to the loss.

Against Mount St. Joseph, the Tigers defense let them down again as they committed four errors in the first game, an 8-3 defeat. In the nightcap, freshmanMegan Ulbright (Wooster, Ohio/Wooster) tossed a five-inning complete and earned the win when the Tigers broke out with four runs in the fifth. The game was concluded at that point due to darkness.

On Sunday, the Tigers started slowly again, losing the opener 4-1 despite a solid complete-game pitching performance by junior Katie Gildow (Bellefontaine, Ohio/Bellefontaine). Wittenberg earned the split by banging out 17 hits in the second game, led by three hits apiece by Norah Gillam (Canfield, Ohio/Canfield),Katie Niemeyer (Findlay, Ohio/Findlay) and Jen Meyer (Solon, Ohio/Hathaway Brown).

Among all the names already mentioned, the player of the week for the Tigers and in the NCAC was senior outfielder Beth Walters (Westerville, Ohio/Columbus DeSales), who went 10-for-16 with six runs and four RBI on the week. She ranks third in the conference in batting average with a mark of .400, and she tops the team in hits (20), runs (12), RBI (11) and total bases (24).

This is an important week for the Tigers as they travel to Ohio Wesleyan on Thursday and then host Oberlin on Saturday. No team in the NCAC has a winning record currently, so the league race is clearly wide open heading into the first week of action.