KISSIMMEE, Fla. - For the third straight day, the Wittenberg Tigers won their opener but dropped their second game. Originally scheduled to play Bluffton University, the Tigers had a late change and wound up with a 2-0 win over Ferrum in the day's first game, but Eastern Mennonite rallied for a 5-4 win in eight innings in the nightcap.
The split left the Tigers with a 5-3 record heading into the final day of the annual Spring Break trip. Wittenberg takes on Muhlenberg and fourth-ranked Washington University on Friday.
Against Ferrum, it was the Rachael Hatcher (West Carrollton, Ohio/West Carrollton) show as the sophomore pitcher tossed her first shutout of the season and also drove in one of Wittenberg's two runs. Hatcher allowed just three hits and four total baserunners in a complete-game performance. In addition, she was one of three Tiger players to go 2-for-3 at the plate, with her sixth inning single plating junior Amy Myser (Columbus, Ohio/Upper Arlington). Senior Stephanie Zorn (Grapevine, Texas/Colleyville) drove in the first run with a first-inning single.
Ironically, the win was Wittenberg's first when playing with the lead. The first four wins of the season had all been of the come-from-behind variety - just like the one Eastern Mennonite recorded in the Tigers' second game of the day.
Freshman pitcher Brooke Boswell (Hamilton, Ohio/Fairfield) was cruising along with a 4-0 lead when things fell apart in the seventh inning. That's when Eastern Mennonite struck for four runs to tie the game up and send it into extra frames. After the Tigers were unable to score in the top half of the eighth, the Lady Royals pushed across the winning run against Hatcher, who came on in relief at the start of the inning.
Wittenberg had taken the commanding lead with a run in the first inning and three more in the top of the seventh. Junior Nicole Ottavi (Columbus, Ohio/Whetstone) collected three hits and scored a run, freshman Cameron Catalfu (Loveland, Ohio/Loveland) scored two runs and junior Amy Myser (Columbus, Ohio/Upper Arlington) chipped in with a pair of RBI in the loss.