Freshman Ashley Lenser pitches Softball to brink of OAC Tournament title

By Wes Mayberry

ADA — The top-seeded Ohio Northern softball team won both of its games in Saturday's opening day of the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament at the ONU Softball Field and sits just one victory away from a championship.

The Polar Bears (23-9 overall) opened with a 1-0 win over No. 4 seed Otterbein (23-13 overall) and then got a 6-4 victory over No. 3 seed Mount Union (22-17-1 overall), putting themselves in great position going into the final day of the double-elimination tournament on Sunday.

Sunday's action will feature an elimination game between Mount Union and No. 2 seed Muskingum (31-11 overall) at 10 a.m., and the winner will face ONU at noon. If Northern wins that game, it will win the tournament championship. If the Polar Bears fall, they will face off in a rematch of that game in a winner-take-all contest at 2 p.m.

Freshman Ashley Lenser (Brookville) played a big part in ONU's two victories on Saturday in pitching the entirety of both games to improve to 12-2 on the season. She finished the day having thrown 182 pitches.

Against Otterbein, Lenser threw a five-hit shutout with one walk and one strikeout.

In the win over Mount Union, she allowed nine hits while striking out three and walking none.

Freshman Taylor Hilty (Kettering/Fairmont) was responsible for the Polar Bears' lone run against the Cardinals.

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fifth inning when Hilty drove home junior Sydney Motylinski (Ida, Mich.) with a two-out single.

Against Mount Union, the Polar Bears matched the Purple Raiders with nine hits and scored the winning runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.

With the score tied at 4-all, junior Lauren Walls (Grove City) and senior Abby Elliott (Loveland/Ursuline) hit back-to-back two-out RBI singles that ended up giving ONU the lead for good.

Mount Union opened the scoring with a two-run first inning, but Northern responded with two runs in the bottom of the frame.

The Purple Raiders retook the lead at 4-2 in the top of the second, and the Polar Bears knotted the score again with a 2-RBI single from sophomore Kaylie Griffin (Grafton/Elyria Catholic) in the bottom of the frame that plated Elliott and Hilty, who had both reached base via singles.

Elliott finished the game with a team-high three hits for ONU, while senior Lauren Renner (Columbus/Hilliard Bradley) added two hits.