Decima and Fought join Softball’s 100-hit club in losing effort

April 22, 2008

By Steven Wright

ADA — Liz Decima and Mandi Fought became the second and third sophomores in Ohio Northern softball history to reach the 100-hit plateau, as the Polar Bears dropped both games of a doubleheader to Denison 3-2 and 11-6 Tuesday aftternoon at the ONU softball field.

The Polar Bears drop to 21-11 on the year, while Denison is now 20-10.

Decima’s 100th hit came in the bottom of the sixth inning of Game 1 on a suicide squeeze attempt that she turned into a double when no Denison player covered second base, scoring Fought from third.

Fought hit a triple to center field in Game 1 to give her 99 career hits, then reached the milestone herself with an infield hit to the shortstop in the bottom of the first inning of Game 2.

Fellow sophomore Tina Mangola became the first Ohio Northern softball player to join the 100-hit club in her second season earlier this year.

The Big Red never trailed in either game, building a 2-0 lead in Game 1 through 5 1/2 innings and jumping out to an early 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning of Game 2.

After Fought’s triple and Decima’s bunt double in the bottom of the sixth of Game 1, junior Matti McFarlin singled through the left side to score Decima and knot the game up at 2-2.

With two outs in the top of the seventh, Ohio Northern induced a ground ball but was unable to convert the out, allowing Denison to score the game-winning run.

In Game 2, sophomore Katie Salay tripled to right center and scored on a single by junior Lisa Goltry to cut the deficit to 3-1 in the bottom of the second.

Northern was down 5-4 after five innings before Denison exploded for six runs in the top of the sixth, putting the contest out of reach.

The Polar Bears mustered two runs in the bottom of the seventh but were unable to complete the comeback.

“We haven’t played our best over the past few weeks, and this time we suffered the consequences,” said head coach Annette Shepherd. “We did however have some people break out of slumps with 19 team hits on the day, and I feel we have learned some things going into tomorrow’s games with Baldwin-Wallace.”

In her first action in nearly two months after being sidelined with a broked thumb, McFarlin went 5-for-7 with an RBI on the day, including a perfect 4-for-4 in Game 2.

Mangola and Decima both recorded three hits on the day.

Bri Scrofano (11-4) and Sam Rumschlag (6-4) picked up the wins for Denison, while Cash (10-6) and freshman Stephanie Inkrott (10-5) took the losses for the Polar Bears.

Ohio Northern will travel to Berea to face OAC-rival Baldwin-Wallace tomorrow at 3:30 pm.