Softball Splits Home Doubleheader With Zips

YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) — The Eastern Michigan University softball team split a pair of games at Varsity Field today, April 27, with visiting University of Akron, coming out on the winning end of a 5-4, 10-inning affair before falling just short in a 4-3 loss in game two. The Eagles now sit a 20-29 overall with a 6-11 in Mid-American Conference games, while Akron is 20-21-1 (4-2 MAC).

The Eagles 10-inning victory in game one took nearly three hours to complete and is the longest outing for the Green and White since its 10-innings against Albany on Feb. 25, 2011.

A wild pitch in the bottom of the tenth allowed Nellie Coquillard to slide in safely and lift the Eagles over the Zips to seal the win. Coquillard had reached previously on an Akron error as part of her 2-for-5 outing in the contest, while Courtney Nicholson also posted a multi-hit game with two hits against the Zips.

The Green and White were outhit 8-to-13, but Akron's four errors allowed three unearned runs to score.

Lindsay Rich got the start for EMU and tossed a solid five innings in the circle. The freshman struck out two and allowed just two earned runs, while Jenna Ignowski (11-8) closed out the final five innings of play to earn her 11th win of the season, striking out four in the game.

EMU took an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first when McKenna Russ hit a bases loaded ground ball that was fired home, but it was not in time to catch the speedy Jessica Richards who scored from third base. A throwing error by Akron eventually let Russ come around and score from second base.

Richards helped her squad to its third run of the ballgame in the third inning of play. After drawing a walk from Akron pitcher Brittany Maurer, the senior stole second and drew the throw on her attempt to steal third. Richards slid into third base safely and quickly scrambled for home after the thrown down missed its mark and ricocheted into left field.

Akron responded with two runs in the third with an RBI-single up the middle, but the Eagles later gained one run back on Coquillard's RBI-base knock through the left side of the infield.

In the seventh, the Zips knotted the score at four apiece with a four-hit inning, leaving the Eagles to seek a walk-off win in the bottom of the seventh.

EMU would come close, moving runners to third and second, but the Zips escaped the threat to force extra innings.

After two scoreless innings, Coquillard got things going in the bottom of the 10th after reaching on an Akron fielding error. Russ laid down a sacrifice bunt, and Sarah Gerber singled to place runners at the corners for EMU, but it would be a wild pitch that soard into the backstop that allowed Coquillard to slide into a 5-4 win.

The Eagles matched Akron's seven hits in game two, but a rough start created a deficit that the Green and White would never overcome.

Akron jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first, taking advantage of an EMU error while stringing together two hits for three runs.

Coquillard cut the Green and White's deficit to two with a single swing of the bat, as she sent her seventh homerun of the season over the left-center field fence.

Both teams' offenses then remained dormant until the bottom of the sixth when Richards doubled to right-center field to plate Stanton and cut Akron's lead to two; however, the Zips responded with an RBI-single in the top of the sixth to set the score at 4-3.

The Eagles needed last-minute heroics in the bottom of the seventh and came close to tying the ballgame with a runner in scoring position and two outs, but the Zips would not relent as they recorded the final out and took game two by a score of 4-3.

The Eagles will return to action tomorrow, April 28 when they host Ohio University for its Fourth Annual Knock Cancer Out of the Park Event at Varsity Field. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m.

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Team Stats

Nellie Coquillard

Courtney Nicholson

Jessica Richards

Katy Blaharski

Eastern Michigan Athletics