Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 Jacksonville, Ala. - The 24th-ranked DePauw softball team opened the 2020 season with a sweep of its first two games as it topped 15th-ranked Birmingham-Southern by a 7-2 score in nine innings before handing Covenant a 9-1 defeat in a game shortened to six innings due to the run rule.
In the opener, Becca St. Germain drove in Olivia Jackson with a second-inning double, but the Panthers matched that in the bottom of the second as Sam Hilyer hit a solo homer to left.
The score stayed at 1-1 and the teams headed to extra innings with the tiebreaker rule in place. Alyssa Nowak's sacrifice fly plated Kaylyn Linder in the top of the eighth, but Hilyer's single in the bottom of the frame scored Mallory Muss and forced the contest into the ninth inning.
The Tigers broke through in the top of the ninth with five runs as Jade Mejia Wick drove in Kate Geary with a single before Cami Henry followed with an RBI double. Abey Bass singled home Henry and then scored on Grace Smith's triple. Smith later came home on Linder's squeeze bunt. Henry struck out two in the bottom of the ninth to seal the win.
Smith and St. Germain each had three of the Tigers' 14 hits with Linder, Drew Bratcher and Mejia Wick adding two apiece. Morgan McGuire and Hilyer each had two of the Panthers' five hits.
Henry picked up the win and struck out 16, while Annie Clayton dropped to 0-2.
Against Covenant, the Tigers scored four in the first and one in the second before the Scots scored their lone run in the third. DePauw wrapped up the scoring with one in the third and fifth innings before ending the game with the run rule after plating two in the sixth.
Paige Price had three of the Tigers' 13 hits with Geary, Nowak and Emily Minett adding two apiece. Four Scots collected one hit apiece.
Riley Magoon struck out four in five innings while allowing three hits to pick up the win. Covenant's Sarah Huskey suffered the loss.
DePauw returns to the diamond on Sunday with a 9 a.m. CST game against Emory & Henry and a 1 p.m. CST contest against Mount St. Joseph.
This Freaky Fast postgame report is sponsored by Jimmy John's in Greencastle, Indiana.