The Northwestern College softball team dropped a pair of games to (RV) Midland, 9-1 (6 innings) and 11-3 (5 innings), in the final doubleheader of the regular season played today in Orange City. Northwestern moves ahead into postseason play with a 26-16 overall record.
Game One: 9-1 (6 innings) loss
Midland broke open a close game with six runs in the third inning and added another run in the fourth for an 8-0 lead. Katlin Anders hit a two-run double and came around to score after a Sierra Athow single for a 4-0 lead. Later, with two and two out, Keira Painter belted a three-run home run on an 0-1 pitch, her second home run of the season.
Northwestern pushed a run across in the bottom of the fifth to extend the game into the sixth.
Madysn Grotewold,
Emily Bosch,
Jessica Mouw hit three straight singles to load the bases and
Jennifer Boeve followed with an RBI single to make the score 8-1. Midland's Aliyah Rincon came into pitch and recorded three outs with the bases loaded, ending the Raiders scoring threat.
Midland pushed its final run across in the sixth on a two-out single by Anders off
Sydnee Isom, who was pitching her second inning.
Northwestern totaled eight hits, seven singles and a double from Emily Strassser; Midland accounted for 10 hits, including two home runs and three doubles. Mouw and Boeve led the Raiders with two hits each with Boeve driving in the lone run.
Midland's Hailee Fliam (14-5) earned the win, pitching the first four innings where she gave up eight hits and one run. Rincon pitched two perfect innings in relief.
Samantha Ubben (7-9) took the loss, giving up eight hits in five innings while striking out five.
Game Two: 11-3 (5 innings) loss
Northwestern held its only lead of the day (3-2) with a two-run third inning on RBI singles from Boeve and Strasser. Midland answered with a five run, fourth inning, with the final four runs coming with two outs. The Warriors loaded the bases with singles by Diana Nisbett, Painter and Emily Prai and scored the tying the game on a groundout by Andrea Cespedes. Three more runs came around to score after an error on a ball hit by Anders, who scored on a single by Roni Foote.
Midland completed the scoring in the fifth, pushing four more runs across on four hits, all with two outs. Prai delivered a run scoring double and three consecutive singles by Cespedes, Anders and Sierra Athow plated the final three runs. Northwestern went down in order in the fifth to end the game.
Ubben (7-10) allowed nine hits and just two earned runs in 3.2 innings. Strasser had two of the five hits for the Raiders.
Foote paced the Warriors 13-hit attack with three hits in four at-bats; Prai and Singleton both had two hits. Rincon earned her GPAC-leading 19th win of the season, improving to 19-2 with a five-inning five hitter.
