MARYVILLE, Tenn. — The Wittenberg softball team opened its 2024 season with a doubleheader sweep of Emory and Maryville in the Maryville College Classic on Saturday. The Tigers opened with a 5-4 win over Emory and capped the night with an 11-9 win over Maryville in eight innings.

The Basics

• Records: Wittenberg (2-0 overall), Emory (2-2 overall), Maryville (6-4 overall)
• Venue: MC Softball Complex - Maryville, Tenn.

Stat Leaders - vs. Emory

• Sophomore Meghan McCans (Arcanum, Ohio/Arcanum) led the Tiger offense with three hits and scored one run to go with two stolen bases.
• Junior Harper Crews (Ypsilanti, Mich./Lincoln) had a triple and two RBIs.
• Freshman Syd Little (Miamisburg, Ohio/Miamisburg) had one hit and two RBIs.
• Sophomore pitcher Lilly James (Troy, Ohio/Troy) earned the win in relief, pitching 3.2 scoreless innings in relief of sophomore starter Julia Hall (Powell, Ohio/Bishop Watterson) and allowing no hits and one walk while striking out two.
• Elizabeth Zerr led the Emory offense with one hit and three RBIs, and starting pitcher Georgia Pineda was charged with the loss.

Game 1 - Wittenberg 5, Emory 4

• Wittenberg opened the scoring with a three-run first inning courtesy of an RBI sac fly from sophomore Kayla Drake (Wilmington, Ohio/Clinton Massie) and 2-RBI single from Little.
• Hall pitched a no-hitter through three innings, as Emory's only base-runner in that span came via a second-inning error.
• The Tigers added to their lead in the top of the third with a 2-RBI triple from Crews for a 5-0 edge.
• The Emory offense broke through in the bottom of the fourth, as an RBI single and 3-run homer cut the deficit to one, 5-4.
• James entered the game in relief of Hall following the home run and proceeded to shut down the Emory offense to preserve the victory for the Tigers.
• Wittenberg finished with a 7-4 edge in hits in the game and committed three errors to Emory's none.

Stat Leaders - vs. Maryville

• Freshman Caylee Roe (Piqua, Ohio/Piqua) paced the Tiger offense with three hits, including a double, to go with two RBIs, one run scored and three stolen bases.
• Drake added three hits, one RBI and two runs scored.
• McCans tallied three hits, two runs and a steal.
• Senior Julia Burch (Dublin, Ohio/Jerome) added two hits and two runs.
• James earned the win in the circle for her second victory of the day. She pitched four innings in relief of senior starter Kira van Ravensberg (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Mountain Vista) and allowed just one earned run on five hits and one walk while striking out five.
• Sara Koonce led the Maryville offense with two hits and four RBIs.

Game 2 - Wittenberg 11, Maryville 9 (8 inn.)

• Wittenberg opened the scoring in the top of the first inning with RBI singles from senior Hanna Ecker (Heath, Ohio/Heath) and sophomore Ashlynn Stamper (Yellow Springs, Ohio/Beavercreek).
• The Scots responded with a run in the bottom of the first and tied the score on a solo homer in the second.
• With the score tied at 3-all after three innings, an RBI single from Drake put Wittenberg up 4-3 in the fourth, and the Tigers added four more runs in the fifth for an 8-3 edge.
• The Scots cut into the deficit in the bottom of the fifth courtesy of a 3-run homer and an RBI single, making the score 8-7.
• Maryville tied the score on an RBI sac fly in the bottom of the seventh, forcing extra innings.
• In the top of the eighth, Roe put the Tigers up 10-8 with a 2-RBI double, and freshman Rebekah Giel (Amelia, Ohio/West Clermont) added an RBI groundout.
• The Scots plated a run on a two-out single, but James got the next batter to pop up to first for the final out of the game.
• Wittenberg out-hit Maryville by a 15-12 margin. The Scots committed four errors to the Tigers' two.

Quote - Head coach Ashley Goodwin

• "Today was a great day to be a Tiger. Our student-athletes played with grit and passion. Team 41 is all in on winning the next pitch, and they did that all day long. Our starting pitchers kept us in both games, and Lilly James came in and shut the door in both games. Our offense was clicking with speed and power. We need to clean up our defensive play but made the plays when it mattered most."

Records & Milestones

• Wittenberg is now 1-1 all-time against Maryville. This marked the first all-time meeting between Wittenberg and Emory.
• Burch has 108 hits and 23 steals in her career. She is 22 hits and two steals shy of breaking into the program's all-time top 10 in those categories.
• Ecker needs 12 hits to reach 100 for her career. She also has 51 RBIs in her career, which is 27 shy of joining the program's all-time top 10 in that category.
• In the circle, van Ravensberg has 20 career wins, which is tied for 10th in program history. She also has 86 career strikeouts, which is 20 shy of breaking into the program's all-time top 10 in that category.

Up Next

• The Tigers return to action on Sunday with another doubleheader against Emory and Maryville at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., respectively.