EMORY, Va. – The Emory & Henry College Softball Team (2-4) played its first two home games as part of the Emory & Henry Invitational Saturday. The Wasps dropped a, 3-2, decision to Marietta College to open play and fell 16-8 to Case Western Reserve University in the final contest. CWRU defeated Marietta, 3-2, in eight innings in the other game.
Game One – Marietta 3, Emory & Henry 2
E&H was the visiting team in its game against Marietta. The Pioneers got on the board with two runs in the bottom of the first on a home run to left centerfield by Rachel Montgomery. MC made the score 3-0 in the third when Kaitlyn Klinchock singled to centerfield, driving in Brianna Finck.
In the top of the sixth, Emory & Henry scored a pair of runs to draw the margin to 3-2. The Wasps' first run came when sophomore Jordan Whitcomb (Rocky Mount, Va.) scored on a wild pitch and the other was later in the at bat as senior first baseman Taylor Doss (Damascus, Va.) plated sophomore centerfielder Leah Elswick (Raven, Va.).
The two teams combined for only eight hits in game one with Montgomery's round-tripper making the difference. Alison Kach earned the win for Marietta, scattering five hits and two runs over the complete game with seven strikeouts.
Elswick had two hits and a run for Emory & Henry. Senior Taylor Banner (Castlewood, Va.) pitched four innings, allowing three runs on three hits with a strikeout.
Game Two – Case Western Reserve 16, Emory & Henry 8
The Spartans scored three in the top of the first on four hits but the Wasps bounced back to plate four in the bottom of the frame. Junior second baseman Riley Pudney (Beech Mountain, N.C.) provided the spark with a two-run double down the left field line to make the score 4-3.
Emory & Henry added two runs in the second to go up 6-3 on a bases-clearing double to left field by sophomore third baseman Caley Hodge (Elizabethton, Tenn.).
CWRU tacked on four runs in the third to go up 7-6 as Nicole Doyle hit a two-run double to left. The Wasps tied things back up at seven when senior pitcher Kaitlyn Pruitt (Abingdon, Va.) scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the third.
In the fourth Case Western Reserve scored four, three of which came on a home run by Grace Tritchler. The Wasps made it 11-8 in the bottom half as Pudney notched another RBI base hit.
The Spartans scored five more times in the fifth to go up 16-8 and with the Wasps unable to plate a run in the bottom of the frame, the game was called with the conditions of the Eight-Run Advantage Rule being met.
CWRU was led by Meghann McMahon's four-for-four game with three RBI while Tritchler went two-for-two with three runs and six RBI. Katie Dzierwa picked up the win in relief, pitching the final 3.2 innings of the game for the Spartans.
Pudney went two-for-three with a run and three RBI while Hodge scored twice and drove in a pair. Elswick had a hit, two runs and two walks but suffered the loss in the circle.
The Wasps will be back in action on Sunday in day two of the Emory & Henry Invitational. E&H will take on CWRU at 10:30 a.m., CWRU will face Marietta at 12:30 p.m., and the event will conclude with Marietta against Emory & Henry at 2:30 p.m.
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-photo courrtesy of Caleb Johnston, E&H '15