Softball Ends Season with a Split

FRANKLIN, IND. – The Defiance College softball team traveled to Franklin, Ind. to face Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference opponent Franklin (Ind.) College and ended the 2016 season with a split against the Grizzlies.

Game one was a battle of the defense, as the scoreboard remained idle until the bottom of the fifth inning when Franklin (24-12, 9-7 HCAC) squeezed one runner across home plate. The Yellow Jackets (18-20, 7-9 HCAC) forced the Grizzlies to make plays in the top of the seventh after loading the bases. With the tying run on third, Franklin held the Jackets to end the game and secure the 1-0 shutout victory.

DC recorded four hits coming off the bats of four different Yellow Jackets. Junior Megan Warren (Mason), senior Megan Pleskovic (Strongsville) and freshman Jackie Hartman (Parma/Padua Franciscan) all went one-of-three at the plate, while sophomore Keri Hupp (Louisville) went one-of-two. At pitcher, sophomore Sarah Kaya (Lorain/Clearview) pitched the complete game and recorded the loss after allowing the lone run off of five hits. Kaya recorded two strikeouts in six innings of work.

Defiance was looking for paydirt in game two and struck first in the top of the third inning. Sophomore Haley Patty (Bradford) hit a solo home run in the first at-bat of the inning to take the 1-0 lead. Later in the inning, Warren recorded an RBI-single to score freshman Jordan Osborne (Delaware/Rutherford B. Hayes) to extend the Yellow Jacket lead to 2-0.

The two runs proved to be the only runs of the game as neither team stirred anything up offensively the rest of the way, as the Yellow Jackets cruised to the 2-0 shutout victory in game two.

The Purple and Gold recorded six hits in game two, from five different Yellow Jackets. Osborne recorded a multi-hit game, going two-of-three at the plate. In the circle, freshman Jamie Kimbler (Huber Heights/Wayne) recorded the start and the win after allowing no runs off of five hits in five innings of work. Kaya pitched two innings of relief and recorded her first save of the season.