Painesville, Ohio – The University of Findlay softball team picked up a pair of Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) victories on Friday, April 26, winning both games of a double header at Lake Erie College. The Oilers won the opener by a score of 2-0 and then won 9-3 to wrap up the day. With those two victories, the Oilers are 28-18 on the year with a 15-9 record in G-MAC play. LEC falls to 3-35 overall and 3-21 in the conference with the two losses.
Game 1 (W 2-0)
Offense was hard to come by in the opening game as the two teams combined to go 1-2-3 five times in the first four innings with neither team having more than one base runner in any of those innings.
Findlay finally got on the board in the top of the fifth when junior Cassie Warner hit a leadoff triple and eventually scored on a sacrifice bunt by junior Lainey Bingham. Sophomore Jenna Poulson then doubled with two outs and scored on an RBI single by senior Avery Shepherd. Shepherd was thrown out at second trying to stretch the hit into a double, but Findlay had picked up a 2-0 lead.
The Storm had just one player reach base in their final three at-bats as the Oilers went on to victory.
Sophomore Alexys Antal picked up the win to improve to 10-4 in the circle. She threw a complete game and did not allow a run on just two hits. She struck out 15 of the 23 batters she faced, establishing a new career-high.
Shepherd had two hits, including a double, and an RBI in the game while Warner had a pair of hits, including a triple, and a run scored.
Game 2 (W 9-3)
The second contest went differently as the Oilers jumped out to an early lead, scoring four runs on five hits in the first inning. The first two batters of the inning were retired before sophomore Annika Bredel ripped a double to right center. An error allowed her to scored and then back-to-back doubles by junior Alissa Davis and sophomore Kora Navarro made the score 3-0. A single by junior Hannah Baker rounded out the scoring.
Lake Erie did pick up a run in the bottom of the first, but three more runs in the second by the Oilers made it 7-1 through two innings.
Findlay added two more runs in the fourth inning, taking advantage of an RBI triple by Bredel and RBI single by Davis.
That was all the Oilers needed as they went on to earn the doubleheader sweep of the Storm.
Senior Molly Pfiffner earned the win to improve to 11-4 on the year. She threw six innings and allowed three runs on seven hits, walked two and struck out three.
Davis was a perfect 3-for-3 in the game with three RBI and a run scored. Bredel had two hits, a double and a triple, and scored a team-high three runs.
The Oilers will wrap up their regular season on Saturday, April 27 with two games against the Ursuline Arrows. First pitch for that double-dip will be at 1:00 pm.
