TIFFIN, OHIO – Junior All-Ohio Athletic Conference right-hander Tabitha Murray (Mogadore/Field) hurled her fifth shutout of the season to lead the Baldwin Wallace University softball team to a 5-0 win against Heidelberg University in the first game of an OAC doubleheader at Jocko Huffman Field.
The win ups BW to 17-12 overall and 3-6 in the OAC. Heidelberg falls to 10-15 overall and 0-9 in the OAC. This is the fifth straight doubleheader in five days for BW, which also hosts The College of Wooster for two games in Berea tomorrow.
Murray allowed just three hits and retired the last 13 batters she faced, struck out nine and issued just two walks, and improved to 14-7 in her 13th complete game of the season.
BW took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning after a run batted-in single by senior right fielder Alyssa Brown (Hudson) scored junior left fielder Nikki Peskura (Strongsville), who doubled, and a two-run single by sophomore All-OAC shortstop Brittany Lightel (Tallmadge) plated Brown and freshman second baseman Alison Fiorucci (Seven Hills/Holy Name), who walked.
The Yellow Jackets added an insurance run in the fifth when Murray's double scored freshman center fielder Jessica Chidsey (West Salem/Black River), who led off the inning with a single, and one more in the sixth after Chidsey reached base on an error, then scored on Peskura's single.
Peskura led BW at the plate by going 2-for-4 with a double, one RBI and one run scored. Lightel went 2-for-3 with two RBI.
The Yellow Jackets face The College of Wooster in a non-conference doubleheader tomorrow at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds Field in Berea at 4 p.m. before hosting OAC-leader Ohio Northern University on Saturday, April 20 for an OAC twinbill at 1 p.m.
FOR MORE BW SPORTS INFORMATION, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu or Assistant SID Jeff Miller by phone at 440-826-2780 and email at jefmille@bw.edu. Fans can access the latest BW athletics information at www.bwyellowjackets.com and we invite you to join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwyellowjackets and Twitter at http://twitter.com/bwathletics.
