Washington U. Softball Swept in Doubleheader at No. 8 Central
BOX 1 | BOX 2
Pella, Iowa, April 5, 2012 – The Washington University in St. Louis softball team dropped a pair of games at No. 8 ranked Central College on Thursday afternoon in Pella, Iowa. Central posted a 3-0 win in its first home game of the 2012 season in the opener, and then scored three runs in the fifth en route to a 4-1 victory in game two.
#8 Central 3, Washington U. 0 – Game One
Kyrie Hale broke a tie game with a two-out RBI double to right center to score Caitlyn Meyer for the first run of the game in the second. Washington U. recorded a pair of hits off Central starting pitcher Rhianna Fleetwood in the first inning, but did not get another hit till the fifth. Fleetwood retired 13-straight Washington U. batters at one point.
Whitney Sowers extended the lead to 2-0 with a solo homerun to leftfield to lead off the bottom of the fourth inning. The homerun for Sowers was her third of the season. The Dutch stole a run from the Bears in the sixth, as Heidi Reburn scored on a double steal to push the lead to 3-0.
Washington U. was limited to five hits in the game one defeat. Senior Olivia Cook (7-5) suffered the loss on the mound allowing five hits and three earned runs in six innings pitched. Freshman Adrienne White was 2-for-3 in the defeat.
#8 Central 4, Washington U. 1 – Game Two
Washington U. had runners on in four of the first five innings of play, but could not push a run across the plate. The Bears grounded into two double plays and had two players thrown out at the plate.
Central (21-5) scored three runs on four hits in the fifth inning to jump out in front 3-0. Emily Te Brink reached on an infield single to leadoff the inning after a pop up landed in front of the plate in between three Washington U. players. A single by Angela Davis moved Te Brink to second, and then she scored on a single by Jordan Overland. Caitlyn Meyer drove the next pitch from WUSTL sophomore starting pitcher Kelsey Neal to the wall to push across two more runs.
Washington U. ended its scoreless streak of 13 innings with a two-out rally in the sixth. Junior Sondra Polonsky and sophomore Maggie Mullen each doubled on consecutive pitches to trim the lead to 3-1. Central added an unearned run in the bottom half of the inning to round out the scoring.
Washington U. outhit Central 9-8 in game two, and left seven runners on base. Senior Alyssa Abramoski (2-for-3), junior Ashley Janssen (2-for-3) and Neal (2-for-3) each had two hits in the loss. Neal (6-3) pitched exceptionally well allowing eight hits and three earned runs in six innings.
Washington University (15-9) continues its six-game road trip to Iowa with four games at the Hy-Vee Classic on Friday-Saturday, April 6-7, at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa. The Bears take on Westminster College at 10 a.m. and Nebraska Wesleyan University at 2 p.m. on Friday.
Washington U. sports information Director Chris Mitchell will be broadcasting both games live at: www.pennatlantic.com, while live stats will be available at http://bearsports-livestats.wustl.edu/Softball/xlive.htm.
Bear Notebook: Washington U. is 4-9 all-time against Central College … The Bears left 13 runners on base in the two games … The three-game losing streak for Washington U. is the first since 2009 … Senior Corissa Santos and Abramoski started their 152 and 153rd-straight game in their four-year career … Santos had a hit in each game to up her career total to 171, three shy of fourth place on the WUSTL all-time list … Santos also walked two times to up her school record total to 58.