Softball Splits - Earns Wild 12-11 Win Over Shepherd

OVERVIEW – QUINCY/SHEPHERD

SCORES: Quincy Hawks 5, Northwood Timberwolves 4/Northwood 12, Shepherd Rams 11 (eight innings)

RECORDS: Northwood 3-6/Quincy 7-7/Shepherd 2-2

LOCATION: Clermont, Fla.

RECAP: Softball played a pair of wild games in Florida, falling 5-4 to Quincy before earning a comeback 12-11 win in eight inning over Shepherd Monday afternoon (March 11).

QUINCY HIGHLIGHTS

• Quincy got off to a fast start in the game, plating three runs in the first inning.
• The Hawks added two more in the sixth to take a 5-0 lead.
• A day after Northwood came back from twice in the late innings to earn a 4-3 comeback win over Post, the Timberwolves nearly did it again against Quincy.
• Trailing 5-0 in the seventh, Northwood got on the board on an error that scored Lauren Castellon.
• Julia Gross followed with a three-run homer, cutting the lead down to 5-4.
• That was as close as the Timberwolves got, however, as the Hawks retired the next batter to end the game.

QUINCY STATS

• Runs/Hits/Errors Northwood: 4/6/1, Quincy: 5/10/5
• Runners Left on Base: Northwood: 8, Quincy: 5
• Winning Pitcher: Sara Demuth (2-2): 7 IP, 6 H, 4 R (1 ER), BB, 7 K
• Losing Pitcher: April Bennett (1-1) 6 IP, 10 H, 5 R (4 ER), BB, 0 K

TOP NU PERFORMERS

• Julia Gross: HR, 3 RBI
• Castellon: 2-3, 2B, R
• Maddie Coulter: 2-3
• Torriya Gray-Baker: RBI

SHEPHERD HIGHLIGHTS

• In what proved to be a back and forth game throughout, the Timberwolves started the scoring in the bottom of the first on a Jordyn Look RBI single.
• Shepherd scored a pair in the top of the second to go up 2-1 before Northwood responded in the bottom of the third. Look got Northwood going once again, this time with an RBI double to tie the game.
• NU then plated three more runs in the third, all on bases loaded walks. Alexis Koehler, Chase Schultz and Coulter all had RBIs on walks in the inning to put the Timberwolves up 5-2. NU had four runs in the inning on just one hit.
• The Rams responded in a big way in the fourth inning, pushing across nine runs. Shepherd had six hits in the inning, while Northwood tossed four walks and committed a pair of errors. That made the score 11-5.
• Northwood bounced back right away in the bottom of the fourth, starting with Look's third RBI hit of the game.
• Mikala Gronback followed with an RBI single of her own to make the score 11-7.
• Later in the inning, Abby Joseph drew a bases-loaded walk that cut the lead to 11-8 after just four innings.
• The scoring slowed down over the next couple of innings, as the score remained 11-8 until there were two outs in the bottom of the sixth. Gray-Baker came up clutch for the Timberwolves, hitting a three-run triple to tie the score 11-11.
• In extra innings, Northwood held Shepherd off the board in the international tiebreaker in the top of the inning. NU then earned the win in the bottom of the inning on a single by Lauren Castellon.

SHEPHERD STATS

• Runs/Hits/Errors: Northwood 12/14/6, Shepherd 11/8/0
• Runners Left on Base: Northwood: 12, Shepherd: 6
• Winning Pitcher: April Bennett (2-1): 4 1/3 IP, H, BB
• Losing Pitcher: Nicole Purtell (0-1): 2 1/3 IP, 5 H, 4 R (3 ER), 2 K

TOP NU PERFORMERS

• Look: 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI, R
• Gray-Baker: 2-2, 3B, 3 RBI
• Taylor Schmitt: 2-2, 2 R
• Coulter: 2-4, 2 R, RBI
• Julia Gross: 3 R

UP NEXT

• The Timberwolves will take Rockhurst and Sioux Falls Tuesday (March 11) starting at 9:30 a.m.