BEREA, OHIO -- The Baldwin-Wallace College softball team lost a pair of Ohio Athletic Conference games today (Thursday, April 15) to OAC-rival Ohio Northern University, 8-3 and 2-1, at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds Field in Berea.
With the pair of losses, B-W is now 13-9 overall and 7-5 in the OAC. With their two wins, the Polar Bears are now 11-17 overall and 7-5 in the OAC.
In the first game, ONU scored three runs in the second inning, three more in the third and two in the fifth to build a commanding 8-0 advantage before the Yellow Jackets tallied twice in the fifth and once in the sixth. ONU outhit B-W, 13-4. Four Yellow Jacket players, junior designated hitter/ pitcher K.C. Young (Olmsted Falls), sophomore rightfielder Lindsay Kaya (Oberlin/ Firelands), senior pitcher/ first baseman Jeanette Brezina (Parma Valley Forge) and freshman leftfielder Lori Schmidt (Brunswick) each had a base hit. Brezina suffered the loss on the mound, just her second in seven decisions this spring.
In the nightcap, ONU scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning to pull off the sweep in Berea. The Yellow Jackets took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning when sophomore All-American catcher Nicole Loudin (Sheffield Lake/ Elyria Catholic), this week's OAC Hitter of the Week, walked, was sacrifice bunted to second, stole third and scored on a base hit by freshman third baseman Lauren Helowicz (Williamsville, N.Y./ Clarence). Loudin's stolen base was her fifth this year and 13th straight in her career without being caught.
Ohio Northern tied the game with a run in the fifth and then won it in the seventh with two outs on a base hit that just eluded the outstretched glove of a B-W player.
Despite the loss, senior Liz Fries (Columbus/ Bishop Watterson) pitched well as she allowed seven hits and two earned runs in six and two-thirds innings but fell to 5-2 overall. Fries also struck out five batters and walked just one.
B-W will next play on Saturday, April 17 when it travels to New Concord, Ohio to play nationally-ranked Muskingum College in an OAC twinbill on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. B-W will then host a rescheduled twinbill on Sunday, April 18 against Ohio Wesleyan University at 1:00 p.m. at the Fairgrounds Field.
FOR MORE B-W SPORTS INFORMATION, please contact SID Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327, by FAX Machine at 440-826-2329 or via e-mail at kruple@bw.edu. To contact softball coach Joe Yocabet, please call him in his office at 440-826-3398 or e-mail Assistant Coach Bob Cochrane at rcochran@bw.edu.
275 Eastland Rd.