ANGOLA, Ind.-- The Trine softball team took both games of a doubleheader against Transylvania University Friday at SportONE/Parkview Field.
The Thunder took the first contest 10-1 in five innings, and then won the closely-contested second game 8-7 on a walk-off infield hit by Erica Robles (Long Beach, Calif. / Lakewood). They moved to 11-5 on the season. Transylvania fell to 6-7 overall.
Robles went 4-for-7 on the day and stretched her hitting streak to 11 games. Justine Robles (Long Beach, Calif. / Lakewood) notched her 41st career win in the nightcap, while Rachell Noble (Indianapolis, Ind. / Decatur Central) paced the offense the entire day, going 6-for-7 with four RBIs. Noble has been on a tear of late, collecting hits in 10 of her last 12 at-bats to raise her season average to .559.
Game One: Trine 10, Transylvania 1
Trine cruised to a win in the first game thanks to 10 runs on 11 hits and a strong pitching performance.
Noble and Kendra Marshall (Leesburg, Ind. / Warsaw) each had two RBIs for the Thunder. They also got two-hit games from Alison Lang (Rome City, Ind. / East Noble) and Emily White (Fortville, Ind. / Mount Vernon), and RBIs from White, Alicia Eavey (Avon, Ind. / Covenant Christian), Lainey McCue (Westlake, Ohio / Westlake), and Kaitlyn Clark (Mount Juliet, Tenn. / Wilson Central).
An error helped Trine get on the board in the first inning. With two outs and a runner on third, Kaylee Fox (Vermilion, Ohio / Edison) hit a ground ball that was bobbled and overthrown to first, scoring a run. The Thunder would tack on another unearned run on a triple by Noble.
Trine racked up five more runs (two of them unearned) in the second thanks to six singles. The Thunder also scored one in the third and two in the fourth.
Transylvania could have made it a very different game had they been able to convert with two on and one out and with the bases loaded and two out in the second, but each time, Robles got a key strikeout, and Trine got out of the inning unscathed.
Justine Robles started and pitched four solid innings to get the win, giving up one run on six hits while striking out five. Bre Cooper (Beech Grove, Ind. / Beech Grove) closed the door with a 1-2-3 fifth inning.
Game Two: Trine 8, Transylvania 7
The second game was a much different story then the first, but the same team ended up on top, as Trine got the walk-off victory in the bottom of the seventh.
Noble and Erica Robles each had three base knocks in the finale, and Noble and McCue both knocked in two runs.
Unlike game one, the finale started quietly, as the first two innings were scoreless. The scoring started in the third, when Transylvania's Jordan Kramer hit a home run and Shelby Bailey added an RBI double to put the Pioneers up 2-0.
However, Trine answered back with four runs (one unearned) in the bottom half of the third, then added another in the fifth to make it 5-2.
Transylvania tied it in the sixth, and then, after Trine scored two in the bottom of the inning, tied it again in the seventh, as Miranda Matthews slid around a tag at the plate on a sac fly.
An infield single by Lang, a sacrifice bunt by Catherine Porter (Canton, Mich. / Plymouth Canton), another infield single by White. Robles' game-winning infield single to the left side scored Lang with the winning run to give the Thunder the victory.
Trine is in action again tomorrow, Saturday, March 25th, as they play DePauw University at home. First pitch for the doubleheader is slated for noon.
Article contributed by Grant Tingley, Trine University, Communications '19