ANGOLA, Ind. -- The offense exploded for the Trine University softball team as they took a pair of wins from visiting Manchester University. The first came in run-rule fashion with a score of 12-0, while the second took an extra frame for an 8-7 victory.
The Thunder started the game on a high sending all nine players to the plate in the first inning and bringing in five runs. Junior Ashley Swartout (Westfield, Ind. / Westfield) brought in the first two runs with a double to left field. Senior Bailey Vande Giessen (Kalamazoo, Mich. / Portage Central) then reached first on a fielder's choice and Swartout was awarded home base because of obstruction.
Senior Victoria Porter (Canto, Mich. / Canton) kept the runs coming with a triple down the first-base line, scoring Vande Giessen all the way from first. The final run came on the next at-bat when freshman Scarlett Elliot (Utica, Ohio / Utica) reached base on an error bringing Porter home.
Both teams were silent through the next two and a half innings until the bats got hot again for the Thunder. In the bottom of the fourth the team once again pitched through the lineup, but this time they plated seven runs to build their lead to 12-0.
Sophomore Amanda Prather (Indianapolis, Ind. / Roncalli) brought in two runs with a triple of her own before Swartout added two more on the back of a homer to left-center. Two singles brought in the other three runs, one from Elliot and the other from Trine.
In the circle, senior Hannah Kampmann (St. Paul, Minn. / Cretin Derham Hall) brought a no-hitter into the top of the fifth inning before the Spartans lead off with their first hit of the game and just their second baserunner. The hit wasn't enough as the Thunder ended the threat and came away with the 12-0 win after five.
The second game took on a completely different script than the first. For starters, Manchester was the first to score, as they got to the Trine pitcher in the top of the third bringing in four runs on four hits and an error.
The lead was a short-lived one as the Thunder found purchase in the bottom half of the same inning. Freshman Madey Flick (Wheatfield, Ind. / Kankakee Valley) picked a great time to record the first hit of her career as she pinch-hit for a bases-loaded single to bring two runs home. Prather, Swartout and junior Taylor Murdock (Lapel, Ind. / Lapel) combined for an RBI each to give the team a 5-4 lead.
The Trine lead was also a short-lived one as the Spartans picked up where they left off in the top of the fourth. They first tied the game with a double before taking back the lead with two more runs off of another double.
The Thunder would cut into the two-run lead in the bottom of the fifth when Elliot brought in a run with another single.
The team still trailed 7-6 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning with one out, but freshman Giselle Riley (Temecula, Calif. / Temecula Valley) came up big with single up the middle which brought a runner across home to tie the game. Trine would go on to load the bases, but the Spartans were able to work their way out of the inning still deadlocked at 7-7 and the teams entered extra innings to be played under international tiebreaker rules (each team starting with a runner on second).
After putting down the side in order in the top of the eighth, Trine came up with the win on the back of a sacrifice bunt from Prather that turned into an error by the Manchester pitcher, scoring the free baserunner all the way from second.
Freshman Adrienne Rosey (Schoolcraft, Mich. / Schoolcraft) picked up the victory from the stripe after entering the game in relief in the fourth inning. She pitched the last four innings of the game fantastically ending with three strikeouts and no hits allowed.
The team improves to 6-2 following the pair of wins. They will take the field again tomorrow, Wednesday, March 24 when they host Defiance College for another doubleheader. The first game is set to begin at 3:30 p.m.
