Defiance loses a pair of heartbreakers to end The Spring Games
AUBURNDALE, Fla. – The Defiance College softball team lost their Thursday twin bill to the University of Chicago, 5-3, and Wooster, 5-4, on late-inning rallies to finish their four-game visit at The Spring Games at the Auburndale Softball Complex.
Game 1
Final: Chicago 5, Defiance 3
Win: Delaney Choi (2-0)
Loss: Anika Craft (0-4)
Save: Paige Heffke (1)
Box Score: Click here
After playing to a 3-3 tie through the first three innings, the Maroons (4-3) used single runs in the fourth and fifth to scoot past the Yellow Jackets (0-9).
DC's Anika Craft (Loss, 0-4) relieved Riley Alcorn on the rubber to start the fourth. Chicago worked a single before Craft hit her second batter. Then the Maroons used a groundout to place runners at second and third. Chicago's Anna Jenson came through with an RBI single for the go-ahead run in the fourth.
In the fifth, Chicago struck fast and traded their second out of the inning for a two-run cushion. Julia Folkl went first-to-third on a Clare Fortier single and then scampered in on an Olivia Cataldo RBI groundout to second base.
Defiance worked the tying run on base in each the sixth and seventh innings. Amber Krause hit a leadoff single to start the sixth before Laney Grimwood worked aboard with a walk. A Craft groundout moved both runners up one station before Delaney Choi (Win, 2-0) fanned the next two Jackets at the dish to put out the fire. It was a similar story in the seventh inning on a one-out walk and an error placed two on base for DC. Chicago turned to Paige Heffke (Save, 1) in relief in the circle and struck out both batters she faced to end the game.
Alcorn allowed two in the top of the first, but the Yellow Jackets earned one of those runs back on a Josilyn Guzman RBI groundout in the bottom of the inning. Destiny Coil came through in the third frame with a one-out, two-run single to center with the bases loaded. The Yellow Jackets left 10 runners on base in the loss.
Game 2
Final: Wooster 5, Defiance 4
Win: Addie Tagg (4-2)
Loss: Maddie Hornung (0-1)
Save: None
Box Score: Click here
In the second game of the day, the Yellow Jackets (0-10) were walked off by Wooster (7-3), 5-4, and spoiled a 4-2 lead entering the bottom of the seventh.
Held to one hit through five innings by Fighting Scots starter Addie Tagg, Defiance put together a three-run sixth to erase a 1-0 deficit, all with two outs. Following a double play to wipe off the bases, Brooke Silcox singled and scored on Josilyn Guzman's double to tie the game. Lily Link singled home Guzman and Ali Mowen knocked home pinch runner Kelly Limbaugh to make it a 3-1 Yellow Jacket lead.
Wooster got one back in the home half of the sixth before Defiance tacked on a fourth run in the top of the seventh on a run of three straight hits. Laney Grimwood singled to left, then Marissa Roberts doubled to center to set up an RBI single by Silcox to push the DC lead to 4-2.
Defiance starting pitcher Savannah McCoy held the Fighting Scots to two runs on five hits, four walks and struck out eight through her first six innings of work. She surrendered a single and double to start the final half inning and was lifted for Maddie Hornung (Loss, 0-1).
Wooster's Cate Barkdoll greeted Hornung with a game-tying double to right-center. After an intentional walk to set up a force at any base, Anika Craft took over in the circle. A wild pitch advanced both Wooster runners to set up the walk-off win. Lynnsey Delio grounded a ball to short that was hurled towards home, but Barkdoll's pinch-runner Emma Hetkey beat the throw to the plate to finish the three-run rally for Wooster.
Roberts and Silcox led Defiance in hitting for the day with three hits apiece on Thursday while Guzman and Coil recorded multiple RBIs.
The loss to Wooster is the fourth time on the young season in which DC has been defeated by one run.
Yellow Jacket softball departs the Orlando area and will trek to Elizabethtown, Ky. for doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday at the Pioneer Classic hosted by Transylvania. Defiance plays at 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. each day and will face George Fox, DePauw, Asbury and Wittenberg.
-JACKETS-
