PAINESVILLE, OHIO – Despite hitting four home runs, the
Lake Erie College softball team couldn't keep up with a
suddenly rolling Hillsdale College offense as the Chargers banged
out 23 hits in a 15-8, 10-0 doubleheader sweep of the Storm at
Slattery Field on Saturday (April 24).
Junior Brittany Sostre (Parma, Ohio/Valley
Forge/Walsh) hit a pair of home runs and drove in a
season-high five runs in the opener for the Storm (8-32), but a
seven-run fourth inning propelled the Chargers (12-26) to
victory.
Sostre singled in two runs in the first and another in the third
as Lake Erie took a 4-1 lead. Hillsdale took advantage of a
pair of Storm errors in the top of the fourth and got a two-out,
two-run single from Kellie Hirst to cap the seven-run frame and
take the lead.
Sophomore Jamie Wodecki (Northfield, Ohio/St. Peter
Chanel) led off the bottom of the fourth with her first
home run of the season and with one out, sophomore Brittany Athey (Vermillion, Ohio/Vermillion) went deep for her
first career round-tripper. The two homers, which both went
to left field, cut the deficit to 8-6.
Sostre's solo shot in the fifth made it a one-run game,
but the Chargers responded with three runs in the sixth,
highlighted by Kate Hoop's two-run single, and added four
more in the seventh. Sostre added another solo homer in the
seventh, tying the school single-game record with her second bomb
and matching her career high with her fourth hit, but Brittany
Hulett set the next three hitters down in order to close it
out.
Miriam McKay hit a home run in the opener as part of the
Chargers 13-hit attack while three players each scored three runs
for Hillsdale. One of those players was Kellie Hirst, who
drove in three runs with her bat and earned the win in the circle.
Hirst (3-4) allowed three runs on three hits in 3 2/3 innings of
relief.
After a scoreless first in game two, Devon Trimmer hit a two-run
double as part of a three-run second and then cleared the bases
with a three-run double during a five-run third to put the Chargers
ahead 8-0. Taylor Schulty (4-11) held the Storm to just three
hits over five shutout innings.
After four hits in the opener, Sostre went 0-for-3 in game
two. Athey, sophomore Haley Rathge (Edon,
Ohio/Napoleon) and sophomore Megan Foley
(Brunswick, Ohio/Brunswick), who had two hits and scored
twice in game one, each had a hit in game two.
Trimmer finished 3-for-4 in the nightcap, driving in five.
She also drove in a run in game one.
Sophomore Sam Ronde (Reynoldsburg,
Ohio/Reynoldsburg) suffered the defeat in both games for
the injury-depleted Storm pitching staff, but was not helped out by
five Lake Erie errors in the opener.
The Storm will look to put an end to its current six-game losing
streak on Wednesday, April 28, when it hosts Ohio Valley University
at 3 p.m.
-LEC-
