Carthage 4, Loras 2, 8 innings
Loras 6, Carthage 4
The Carthage College softball team (5-7, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) split a Sunday, March 27 doubleheader with Loras College (5-10) at the Faber-Clark Softball Field in Dubuque, Iowa. Carthage won the first game, 4-2, in eight innings but lost the nightcap, 6-4, in the bottom of the seventh inning on a two-out, two-run walk-off home run by Kellie Klein.
In the opening game, Carthage broke a 2-2 tie with a pair of runs in the eighth inning. Sarah McGinn's RBI-single in the top of the first gave the Lady Reds a 1-0 lead. After the Duhawks tied the game in the bottom half, the Lady Reds took a 2-1 lead in the fourth on a solo home run by Stephanie Schaefer. Loras came right back with a run in the bottom of the fourth to knot things up at 2-2. In the eighth with one out, Schaefer walked and moved up to third on a double by Kati Peterson. With two outs, Bryanna Heckel singled in both runners.
Pitcher Krystina Leazer (5-1) went the distance and allowed two runs, one earned, on five hits and a walk, while striking out a career-high 13 batters. Stephanie Popovich (0-4), the second-of-two Loras hurlers, took the loss. Bryanna Heckel (Fr., Kenosha, Wis./Salem-Westosha Central) tied a Carthage game record with five hits in five trips to the plate. Teri Drewniak first set the record with five hits versus Wheaton College (Ill.) on April 3, 1987, and three other players subsequently matched it. The last Lady Reds player with five hits in a game was Aleka Nassis against Aurora University on March 31, 1999.
In the nightcap, Loras took a 1-0 lead in the third inning. Carthage scored three times in the fifth to take a 3-1 lead. Amy Slattery doubled, and Bryanna Heckel singled her home. Vicki Pyan doubled in Heckel, and Alyssa Schrader singled in Pyan. The Duhawks answered with three runs in the bottom of the fifth on back-to-back home runs by Tracy Sullivan and Sara Palczynski, the latter a two-run shot. An RBI-double by Pyan in the seventh inning tied the game, 4-4, but Kellie Klein's walk-off, two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh gave Loras a 6-4 win.
Duhawks pitcher Michelle Sabatini (1-2) was the winning pitcher, with Krystina Leazer (5-2) taking the loss in relief of Alyssa Sirocchi. Sirocchi worked the first five innings and gave up the first four runs, with Leazer taking over in the sixth inning. Loras' Tracy Sullivan went four-for-four with two RBI, and Carthage's Vicki Pyan went four-for-four with two doubles and two RBI. Sunday temperatures in the Dubuque-area topped out in the upper-30s.
The weather will likely be more of the same on Tuesday, March 29 when the Lady Reds travel to Holland, Mich., to play Hope College (11-4-1) in a 3 p.m., EDT doubleheader at Wolters Stadium at the Ekdal J. Buys Athletic Complex. Tuesday's forecast for Holland calls for mostly-sunny skies and high around 40 degrees.
