Carly McKenzie powers Softball to double header sweep at Mount Union

By Tim Glon

ALLIANCE -- Junior Carly McKenzie smacked two home runs and had six RBI to lead the Ohio Northern softball team to a 4-3, 12-6 Ohio Athletic Conference double header sweep at Mount Union on Saturday.

The Polar Bears improve to 7-9 overall, extending their winning streak to six games, and are now 6-4 in OAC action.

The Purple Raiders fall to 16-7, 6-4.

McKenzie drilled a 3-run home run, a 2-run home run and had an RBI triple in Game 2 alone, finishing the game going 4-for-5 with 6 RBI.

She was 5-for-9 on the day.

Mount Union opened up a 5-1 lead after three innings, but McKenzie's 3-run blast in the fourth capped a 4-run rally to tie the game at 5-5.

Her 2-run home run in the top of the sixth gave ONU the lead for good at 7-6 and her RBI triple in the seventh was part of a 5-run inning.

Sophomore Kelly Sheridan had three hits and junior Christin Miller had two hits in Game 2.

In Game 1, ONU scored twice in the fourth and two more times in the sixth to take a 4-1 lead.

In the fourth, Sheridan hit a sacrifice fly and freshman Anne Dreher followed with an RBI single as Northern took a 2-0 lead.

Junior Colleen Baliga had an RBI single and junior Michelle Sweet followed with a sacrifice fly in the sixth.

Mt Union got a single run in the sixth to pull within 4-2 and got within 4-3 in the seventh inning on a 1-out double by Shelby Carmichael, but senior Abbey Bensing (4-3) got the final two outs to record the complete-game victory.

The Polar Bears will turn right around on Sunday with a non-conference twin-bill at Adrian (Mich.)