Softball drops two close games in Florida

CLERMONT, Fla. - The Defiance College softball team dropped two close games today, as they fell 3-2 to Wittenberg University in game one and 4-3 against Marietta College in game two. 

The Yellow Jackets took an early 1-0 lead as Marissa Roberts (Warren, Ohio / LaBrae) led off with a walk and Kalin Hubble (Anderson, Ind. / Anderson) moved her over to second base. That brought Brooke Gostomsky (Covington, Ohio/ Covington) to the plate who doubled to left scoring Roberts.

It wasn't until the fourth inning when Wittenberg responded with two runs of off Yellow Jacket miscues to go up 2-1. The next inning Hubble blasted a ball over the left-field fence for her second home run of the season to tie the score at 2-2. 

The Tigers tacked on a run in the bottom of the inning to go up 3-2, and errors sought too much for the Purple and Gold suffering the one-run loss.

Jennifer Kaffenbarger (DeGraff, Ohio / Indian Lake) got the start in the circle for the Yellow Jackets, throwing six innings and only allowing seven hits.

In game two, Marietta jumped to an early 3-0 lead by the third inning, but the Yellow Jackets responded in the bottom of the third, as Roberts singled to shortstop and stole second to put runners on second and third. 

Hubble later scored Roberts, as she reached first base on an error from the Pioneers to make the score 3-1. Gostomsky singled to left, to load the bases, to bring up Sophie Moller (Pickerington, Ohio / Pickerington North) who hit a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Richards making the score 3-2. In that same play, Hubble came around to score on a miscue from the Marietta catcher, making the score 3-3, headed into the fourth inning. 

The sides remained deadlocked at 3-3 until the top of the seventh inning when the Pioneers pushed a run across the plate, giving Defiance the 4-3 loss. 

Taylor Biggs (Cincinnati, Ohio / Oak Hills) pitched all seventh innings for the Yellow Jackets, allowing 11 hits and struck out two. 

Offensively, Defiance was led by Hubble, who finished the day with a home run and 2 RBI. 

With the losses, the Yellow Jackets fall to 3-5 overall and will be back in action tomorrow, Tuesday, March 10th, against Millikin University at 11:00 am and Olivet College at 1:30pm.