Softball Splits A Pair In Florida

CLERMONT, FLA. – The Northwood University softball team split another pair of games down in Florida on Monday afternoon (March 7). NU dropped a 4-0 contest to Minnesota State before earning an 11-8 win over St. Cloud State.

The Timberwolves are now 3-3 on the season.  Minnesota St. is 10-4, while SCSU stands at 9-11.

Northwood was only able to register a single hit that came in the third inning of game one. The Mavericks' pitcher, Coley Ries, registered 17 strikeouts against 24 batters in the contest. Minn. State scored a single run in each of the first four innings to earn a 4-0 win. Vanessa Ewing (Maybee, Mich./Dundee) is now 1-2 in the circle for the Timberwolves.

NU allowed the first four SCSU batters in game two to cross the plate on six hits, falling behead 4-0 early. The Timberwolves cut the lead down to 4-2 on a pair of singles toward center field in the second inning. Hayley D'Avilar (Georgetown, Ont./Christ the King Catholic Secondary) hit in Lauren Look (Pinconning, Mich. / Pinconning (Cleveland State) followed by an RBI by Ashley Lynn (Garden City, Mich.) to score Danielle Bartodziej (Westchester, Ill. / Nazareth Academy).

The third inning saw the most runs of the game, as the Huskies plated three runs to pull ahead 7-2 before the Timberwolves hit their best inning of the season. With two runners on base, Jessica Tostrud (Kenosha, Wisc./Mary D. Bradford) hit a double to center field scoring Riley Ostapowicz (Grand Rapids, Mich. / West Catholic). Look then hit a sacrifice fly to right field, plating Jennifer Wontorcik (Midland, Mich. / Midland) and advancing Tostrud to third. Bartodziej followed the sequence with a single through the left side of the infield to score Tostrud. With two outs Gietl reached on an error by the shortstop and scored two runs tie the game 7-7.

NU was able to plate one more in the fourth and three in the sixth, a pair on a Gietl double to right center, taking an 11-7 advantage into the top of the seventh.

NU out-hit the Huskies 15-10 for the game and left 10 runners on base, while SCSU left six runners on base. Marissa Tiano (Warren, Mich. / Regina) picked up the first win of her career, facing 20 batters in four and two-thirds innings pitched.

Lynn finished the game batting 4-4 with an RBI and a run scored. Tostrud hit 2-4 with a double, two RBI's and scored a pair of runs. Gietl finished with four RBI's and a double, while Bartodziej and D'Avilar each went 3-4 with and scored two runs.

Northwood is slated to play Indiana (Pa.) and Lees-McRae on Tuesday (March 8) at the NTC in Clermont, Fla. Game times are set for 1 & 3 p.m.