Softball team opens home, OAC slate with split with John Carroll

March 30, 2008

By Tim Glon

ADA — The Ohio Northern softball team opened the home and Ohio Athletic Conference portions of its 2008 schedule with a double header split with John Carroll Sunday afternoon at the ONU Softball Field.

The Polar Bears (10-6 overall, 1-1 OAC) won the opener 6-5, while the visiting Blue Streaks (3-9, 1-1) took the nightcap 4-3.

Sophomore Liz Decima led the Ohio Northern offense, going 5-for-6 with two doubles and two RBI on the day.

In the first game, Northern built a 4-0 lead and held on for a 6-5 victory.

Decima singled home sophomore Tina Mangola in the bottom of the third with the game’s first run.

In the fourth frame, junior Lisa Goltry drilled a solo home run, her first of the season and the second of her career, to put ONU up 2-0.

Sophomore Mandi Fought made it 3-0 on an outstanding hustle play in the fifth. She led off the inning with a walk and promptly stole second. When JCU catcher Jamie Smerdel’s throw sailed into center field, Fought hustled around third and scored just ahead of the throw from center fielder Kelly D’Amico.

Mangola then walked, went to third on a double by Decima and scored on an error to make it 4-0.

But JCU would pull within 4-3 on a 3-run home run by Beth Bachman in the top of the sixth frame.

Northern answered with two insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Mangola and an RBI bunt single by Decima to score junior Danielle Goubeaux and sophomore Katie Salay, respectively.

Northern would need both of those runs as it turned out, as the Blue Streaks plated a pair of unearned runs in the top of the seventh, but ONU junior Courtney Cash (5-3) would get the final out to earn the complete game victory.

In game two, JCU scored three unearned runs in the top of the first and never trailed in the 4-3 win.

Northern pulled even at 3-3 with a run in the first and two more in the third, but JCU’s Staci Ziobert smashed a solo home run to put the visitors up 4-3.

Ashley Lippert (1-2) earned the win and Samantha Thompson threw three shutout innings of relief to earn her first save for the Blue Streaks.

Cash threw all 14 innings on the day for ONU, posting a win and a loss.

The Polar Bears will return to action Tuesday at OAC foe Heidelberg at 3 pm.