OLIVET, Mich. – The Trine University softball team will return home with a pair of victories after traveling to face a pair of Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) in non-conference games. They started the day with an 8-0 victory over Olivet College before working their way through a 3-1 win over Alma College.
The Thunder picked up their first lead in the top of the second inning. Senior Victoria Porter (Canton, Mich. / Canton) put the team ahead 1-0 with a single swing of the bat. Her first homer of the year was the only scoring in the game for either team until the fifth inning.
In the top of the fifth, the Trine offense really got going. Junior Ashley Swartout (Westfield, Ind. / Westfield) tallied the first RBI with a single. Porter then decided that one homer wasn't enough for the game and tallied another this time bringing in three runs.
A few at-bats later senior Bailey Vande Giessen (Kalamazoo, Mich. / Portage Central) became the second Thunder to go yard as she brought in pair of runs with her first homer of the season. Sophomore Ellie Trine (Kokomo, Ind. / Kokomo) finished off the scoring with an RBI double.
All told Trine put seven runs on the board in the half-inning giving them an 8-0 lead and forcing the Comets to score or lose the game to the run-rule. The Thunder defense held strong and the game ended after five innings.
Senior Hannah Kampmann (St. Paul, Minn. / Cretin Derham Hall) picked up her fourth win of the season in the circle. She finished with six strikeouts while allowing just three hits.
The scoring was scarcer in the second game of the day. Ellie Trine came through finally came through for the team in the bottom of the third inning when her single brought in the first run of the game. She encored her performance in the bottom of the fifth to give the Thunder a 2-0 lead.
Alma responded in the top of the sixth by cutting the deficit in half with a run of their own.
Freshman Scarlett Elliott (Utica, Ohio / Utica) finished off the scoring in the game in the bottom of the sixth giving Trine their final 3-1 lead of the game.
From there sophomore Anna Koeppl (Perrysburg, Ohio / Perrysburg) and the defense shut down the Scots to secure the victory. The win is Koeppl's third of the year. She ended the game with three strikeouts.
The Thunder improve to 10-4 following the pair of wins. They will begin MIAA conference play on Wednesday, March 31 when they travel to face Kalamazoo College. The doubleheader is set to begin at 3 p.m.