SOFTBALL

The Forester softball team is off to a perfect start, picking up a pair of road wins over Defiance, 8-0, 9-8, on opening day at Defiance High School Tuesday afternoon.

For Coach Tim Averill, the season-opening doubleheader proved his first two wins as a head coach. Averill was appointed coach last June after serving as the associate head coach in the program for three years.

Kinsey Mollenkopf pitched a dandy in the opener, going the distance to notch the complete-game shutout. The sophomore hurler scattered just two hits and gave out three free passes while striking out nine of the 23 batters she faced in six innings of work.

Offensively, her teammates provided plenty of support by generating eight hits, drawing four walks and taking advantage of four Defiance blunders to plate eight runs and cut the contest an inning short compliments of the mercy rule.

The Yellow Jackets, returning to the NAIA in 2023 after 23 years as an NCAA Division III school, had their hands full with Maddie Goheen who finished the contest 2-for-3 at the plate with four RBI. The junior catcher singled in HU’s first run of the year in the top of the first and then cranked one down the right field line for a two-run triple in her next at bat. She was hit by a pitch in the sixth with bases loaded to earn her final RBI.

Carli Tharp was also a handful. Like Goheen, she went 2-for-3 at the plate in addition to scoring three times and swiping two bags. She accounted for HU’s first run in the second with some crafty base running amidst two DC errors. Coach Averill also got RBI-hits from Maddie Duvall and Gena Moore with the Foresters’ final run coming by way of another botched play by Defiance in the sixth.

When all was said and done, HU scored twice in the first, three times in the second and then collected three more runs over the last three frames.

The nightcap saw Huntington spot their hosts an early 4-0 advantage, but they weren’t about to settle for splitting the series and so began the slow grind to get back in it. Jess Duvall and Moore hammered out back-to-back RBI-base pokes in the third, Duvall’s a double into centerfield while Moore’s was in infield single.

By the top of the fourth, Averill’s crew had knotted things up at 4s thanks to the bats of Khloee Gregory and Kylie Fisher, both knocking in a run with a single. Defiance responded immediately by climbing back on top by three at 7-4 in the home half of the frame.

After a scoreless fifth, both teams scored in the sixth to set the stage for HU’s heroic finish. Maddie Duvall and Gregory opened up the seventh with consecutive walks and eventually came around to score on Fisher’s two-run single.

Two outs later with runners on the corners, the Yellow Jackets weren’t able to throw out Fisher at home on Jess Duvall’s fielder’s choice. An errant throw on that same play allowed another run to cross home plate which proved the game-winner after reliever Karlee Franklin worked a three-up, three-down bottom of the seventh to call it quits.

Franklin tossed the final two frames to earn the win. The senior slammed the door shut on Defiance’s offense, not giving up any hits, runs or walks while striking out three.

Moore, Fisher and Gregory collected two hits apiece with Fisher registering three RBI.

The Foresters are back in action on Thursday when they host IU South Bend at the World Baseball Academy in Fort Wayne. Open pitch is set for 3:00 p.m.