ANGOLA, Ind.-- The Trine softball team split its pair of games on the opening day of the 2015 MIAA Softball Tournament, held Friday at SportONE/Parkview Field.
The Thunder staged a dramatic comeback effort to force extra-innings and ended up defeated Saint Mary's, 8-7 in nine innings in the opener. Rachel Harris (Uniontown, Ohio/Hoover) hit a pinch-hit, two-run homer with two outs to extend the game to extra-innings. Catherine Porter (Canton, Mich./Plymouth Canton) ripped a walk-off base hit to score Amy Newell (Three Rivers, Mich./Three Rivers) with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. Trine was shut down by Alma's Morgan Stratton in game two, as the Scots earned the 4-2 victory.
Trine will face Saint Mary's in an elimination game tomorrow at noon. The winner of that game will advance to the championship round to face Alma. The Thunder would have to win three times tomorrow to capture the MIAA Tournament Championship.
Game One: Trine 8, Saint Mary's 7 (9)
Each team fought back from deficits, but it was the Thunder who struck last to get the victory.
Trine scored twice in the bottom of the second to get on the board. Newell raced home on a double-steal and Emily McCarty (Mattawan, Mich./Mattawan) added an RBI infield single to make the score 2-0.
Newell gave the Thunder a four-run cushion with a two-run home run in the bottom of the third. The homer was the senior's sixth of the season.
SMC rallied back to score the next seven runs, beginning with an RBI-single by Sarah Callis in the fifth. The Belles then proceeded to load the bases on walks with one out in the sixth. Kayla Chapman then launched a homer to right center for the grand slam and a 5-4 Saint Mary's lead.
The Belles added two more in the seventh on a two-run home run by Jillian Busfield to put Trine in a serious hole with three outs to play.
The Thunder would rally back to force extras, with the rally starting on a solo homer by Kaylee Fox (Vermilion, Ohio/Edison) to lead off the bottom of the seventh. The freshman lofted a long drive that hugged the line and stayed just inside the foul pole for her team-leading 12th home run of the season.
Rachell Noble (Indianapolis, Ind./Decatur Central) worked a big, two-out walk to keep the game alive and set the stage for the pinch-hitter, Harris. The senior dug out a low pitch and lofted a fly ball just over the center field wall for the clutch two-run homer to tie the game and send it to extras.
The home run was the 26th of Harris' career, the fourth-most in team history.
Each team would trade zeroes until the bottom of the ninth, when Newell led off with a double to the left-center gap. Porter followed by ripping a grounder past the third baseman to score Newell and give the Thunder the victory.
The walk-off hit was the first of Porter's collegiate career.
Game Two: Alma 4, Trine 2
Stratton shut down the Thunder to advance to the championship round and send Trine to tomorrow's elimination game.
A leadoff single for Carly Searles (Levering, Mich./Petoskey) moved the senior into second in NCAA Division III history in hits. She finished the day with 295 hits, four short of the D3 record.
The Scots took advantage of several Thunder defensive miscues to score three unearned runs. Two of those came in the top of the first on a dropped fly ball.
Alma added another run on an error in the fifth, before Lea Lusk plated a run with an RBI-single to make the score 4-0 through five.
Trine broke through against Stratton in the sixth, as Searles went to the opposite field for her eighth home run of the season. The total is a career-high for the two-time All-American. She has homered four times in her last five games. The RBI Searles picked up with the hit made her the school's all-time leader in career RBIs with 149.
The Thunder put two more on with none out, but were only able to get one more on an RBI-groundout by Fox.
Stratton held the third-best scoring offense in the nation to just four hits and two earned runs. The sophomore walked three and struck out nine in the 132-pitch effort, which came on the heels of a 126-pitch shutout of Hope in the Scots' first game of the day.