Ohio Northern Softball falls 6-3 to Capital in game 1 of the OAC Tournament

By: Ashley Birchmeier

TIFFIN — Junior Amanda Lahti leads the #3 seeded Polar Bears as they fall to #2 seed Capital 6-3 Friday morning at the Ohio Athletic Conference Championships hosted by Heidelberg at Frann's Field.

The Polar Bears (21-13 overall, 12-6 OAC) will take on the loser of #1 seed Heidelberg and #4 seed John Carroll at 4 pm today, while Capital (28-12 overall, 14-4 OAC) will take on the winner of Heidelberg and John Carroll at 2 pm.

ONU struck first in the contest as Lahti hit a sacrifice fly to left scoring freshman Anna Martin in the top of the first to take a 1-0 lead.

Capital responded in the bottom half of the inning as LeAnna Cotton hit a two-run homerun to take the 2-1 advantage.

The Crusaders added two more in the 2nd inning to push its lead to 4-1.

In the top of the 3rd, ONU freshman Gia Saturday hit an RBI double to score freshman Jenna Hollar and pull the Polar Bears within 4-2.

Cotton, for Capital, picked up another RBI in the fourth as she drove in two more runs pushing the Crusaders lead to 6-2.

In the top of the fifth, Lahti hit an RBI double to score Saturday and cut into the Crusaders lead 6-3.

Capital was able to retire the Polar Bears offense the next two innings to hang on for the 6-3 victory.

The Polar Bears will return to action today at 4 pm taking on the loser of Heidelberg and John Carroll.