SOFTBALL

The HU softball team swept Grace, 12-11, 13-7, Friday afternoon to improve to 16-22 overall, 8-16 in CL action. To say it was a slugfest is an understatement as both teams logged double-digit hits in each game of the twin bill.

Game one was a rollercoaster of emotions for both squads. Grace took the early 3-0 lead after an inning of play only to watch it slip away by the sixth to the tune of an 8-3 difference in favor of the hosts. All indicators up to that point would have suggested that HU would cruise to the win.

After scoring three times in the first, the Lancers’ offense dried having managed just four hits over the next five frames. But their dormant offense came back to life in the seventh. Three pitchers, five hits, two walks, one hit batter, a wild pitch and an error equated to eight runs for a three-run Grace lead. With this turn of events, the visitors were three outs away for an unbelievable comeback.

It would have been easy for the Foresters, now staring at an 11-8 deficit, to hang their heads. Not so. Instead back-to-back singles by Maddie Goheen and Kasey Hickle set the stage for a Gena Moore single up the middle to bring in one run. Bree Hines worked a walk to load the bases after which Jess Duvall patiently did the same to pull her team within one at 11-10.

Courtney Mason then put the finishing touches on the come-from-behind win with a walk-off two-run single into right to make for extremely different dugout reactions. Mason’s fingerprints were all over the game as the senior slugger finished 4-for-5 from the plate with three RBI and two runs scored.

Moore also put up four hits in addition to collecting two RBI. Nigella Reck posted two base pokes and two RBI. Other Foresters to claim a pair of hits included Hickle, Jess Duvall and Goheen. HU finished with a season-best 16 hits to Grace’s 12.

Kinzie Mollenkopf gave up a hit and a run before working Grace’s final two outs to pick up the win in the circle.

After posting just one hit for extra bases in the opener, Ehler’s crew brought out the big sticks for the nightcap.

The Duvall twins one-upped the Lancers in the third. After the guests rounded the bases three times in the top of the frame, the sophomore sisters each clocked one out of the park to the tune of five runs. Jess sent her three-run bomb over the left center field fence while Maddie went yard dead center for a two-run blast. The two dingers catapulted HU into the fourth with their first lead of the contest at 6-5.

Grace climbed back on top in the fifth, 7-6, only to watch Hines launch one over the right field fence, HU’s third homer of the day, to deadlock things at 7-7 in the home half of the frame.

Hines’ dinger was the boost her team needed as the sixth saw Huntington blow the game wide open. With two outs, the hosts strung together seven hits and two walks to score six unanswered runs which included run-scoring base pokes by Moore, Hines and Jess Duvall and an RBI-walk by Jo Walker.

HU sent 12 batters to the plate in the seventh.

The Foresters pounded out 14 hits for the game with Reck claiming three of them. HU’s first four batters in Hickle, Moore, Hines and Jess Duvall each pounded out a pair of hits and collectively drove in eight runs. Duvall, in the cleanup spot, posted five RBI for an extremely productive day at the plate. Hines and Maddie Duvall added two RBI apiece.

Thirteen runs matches a season best for Ehler and crew.

Natalie Haselby tossed the final 4.2 innings of the game to earn the win on the mound. She allowed five hits, two runs and a walk while fanning six batters.

Saturday is HU’s senior day. The Foresters will honor their three seniors twenty minutes before opening pitch with Saint Francis at 1:00 p.m.