WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Baldwin Wallace University softball team dropped a pair of games to Ohio Athletic Conference leader Otterbein University on the Otterbein Softball Field.
BW(8-1, 1-3 OAC) snaps a two-game winning streak. Otterbein (17-3-2, 4-0 OAC) has now won four straight and five of the last six meetings against the Yellow Jackets.
The Cardinals won the first game by a score of 8-0 in five innings. Otterbein won the second game by a final score of 12-1 in five innings.
In game one, the Yellow Jackets were held scoreless and had one hit. The Cardinals scored eight runs on 12 hits as it pushed three runs across the plate in the fourth and five more in the fifth.
Freshman center fielder Abbie Thompson (Madison) had the lone Yellow Jacket hit.
In the circle, junior All-OAC and Academic All-OAC pitcher Erica Morgan (Brook Park/Midpark) pitched four and one-third innings and allowed seven runs (five earned) on 10 hits with two strikeouts. Junior Mackenzie Nelsen (Powell/Dublin Scioto), who started the game in right field, pitched one-third of an inning and allowed one run on two hits in her first appearance of the season.
In game two, BW scored one run on four hits as it plated its lone run in the fifth inning. Otterbein scored 12 runs on13 hits and it tallied six runs in the first, one in the second, four in the third and one in the fourth.
Four Yellow Jacket hitters had a base knock led by junior right fielder Nicolette Kunath (Columbia Station/Columbia) with a double and the lone BW extra base hit. Sophomore pinch hitter Nicole Fletterick (Columbia Station/Olmsted Falls), freshman shortstop Erica English (North Olmsted) and freshman third baseman Paige Loveless (Mechanicsburg) and all provide the other hits.
In the circle, Nelsen made her first collegiate start and allowed11 runs on hits with 12 strikeouts with two strikeouts in two and two-thirds innings pitched. Freshman Sami Minor (North Royalton), who made her first collegiate appearance in the circle, came in relief and allowed one run on one hit.
The Yellow Jackets are back in action on Tuesday, April 5 when they travels to Cleveland for a non-conference doubleheader against Case Western Reserve University at Mather Park. First pitch is slated for 3:30 p.m. BW returns home on Wednesday, April 6 when it hosts an OAC doubleheader against cross-town rival John Carroll University on the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds Softball Field at 3 p.m.
