DE PERE, WIS.—The Carthage College softball team's first road bout of 2018 pitted them against St. Norbert College (DH) in De Pere, Wis. on Thursday afternoon. Lady Reds pitcher
Stefanie Guercio registered a one-hitter throughout the first four innings of game one to help lock a 7-2 victory over the Green Knights. Carthage dropped a 2-1 decision to St. Norbert in game two thanks to a two-out, walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh inning. The Lady Reds outhit St. Norbert 9-6 in game two.
"Very pleased with every aspect of game one," said Lady Reds head softball coach
Amy Gillmore. "Unfortunately, we left one too many runners on base in game two to execute the sweep."
The split sends Carthage's record to 7-7, 0-0 CCIW while the Green Knights stand at 3-9, 0-0 MWC after Thursday.
Lady Reds 7, St. Norbert 2
Lady Reds pitcher Guercio didn't surrender a hit throughout the opening three innings to keep the score 0-0. She received five runs of support in the top of the fourth, where
Alexandra Millett led off with a double, advanced to third on a passed ball, and scored on
Naomi Alonzo's sacrifice fly to make the score 1-0.
Jennifer Michuda's double and Guercio's walk put runners on first and second later in the inning.
Alessia Knowski plated Michuda with a double to widen the margin to 2-0.
Marissa Maldonado made the score 4-0 when she knocked in Knowski and Guercio with a single up the middle. Maldonado wrapped up Carthage's five-run fourth inning when she scored off
Emmily Zinkiewicz's single to make the score 5-0.
Brooke Sefcik, who doubled, scored off Guercio's double to the right-field fence in the fifth inning to push Carthage's advantage to 6-0. The Lady Reds added another run in the sixth inning when Maldonado, who led off with a walk, scored of Millett's single to make the score 7-0.
The Green Knights mustered a pair of seventh-inning runs, but couldn't close the gap as Carthage held onto a 7-2 win.
Millett went 3-for-4 at the plate for Carthage, while Sefcik and Maldonado each contributed a pair of hits. Guercio scattered no runs on just one hit in four innings of work on the pitching rubber for the Lady Reds.
Ellie Bernero threw the last three innings for Carthage.
St. Norbert 2, Lady Reds 1
Naomi Alonzo went the distance for Carthage on the pitching rubber, where she allowed two runs (one earned) on six hits. One of those runs came of the unearned variety in the first inning when a Carthage fielding error aided St. Norbert to a 1-0 edge.
The Lady Reds knotted the game 1-1 in the fifth inning off Sefcik's sacrifice fly that scored
Veronica Pieters. Carthage couldn't muster another hit the remainder of the contest. With darkness becoming a factor, Green Knights' pinch-hitter Morgan Moxon notched a seventh-inning double. Her pinch runner, Whitney Bauman, later scored from third base off Brianna Braeger's two-out, walk-off single to left center field to give St. Norbert a 2-1 win.
Zinkiewicz paced the Carthage offense with three hits, while Millett contributed two.
The Lady Reds will face Milwaukee School of Engineering (DH) in their first home game of 2018 at the Carthage Softball Field on Saturday, March 24 at 12:00 p.m.
