One-run games have often been a source of frustration for the 2014 Hillsdale College softball team.
They weren't on Wednesday.
Thanks to some clean play in the field and excellent pitching from the Sophomore Sarahs, the Chargers stayed alive for a GLIAC postseason spot with wins over Tiffin University by scores of 3-2 and 1-0 at Johnny Williams Field. Hillsdale is now 18-16 overall and 10-12 in the GLIAC. In the process of winning the two games, Hillsdale eliminated Tiffin from postseason consideration.
The Chargers host high-powered Grand Valley State University for two home games starting at 3:30 p.m. Friday.
Sophomore Sarah Grunert was a dominant force in the first game, going 2-for-3 with two doubles and two runs scored on offense. When she took the mound, she pitched a complete game, picking up her seventh win of the season with a six-strikeout performance.
Complementing Grunert's play was sophomore catcher Danielle Garceau, who set a new season-high with three hits on the game, including two runs batted in. She got the Chargers on the board in the third inning with a single up the middle that scored Grunert from second base.
Tiffin scored twice in the fourth to take a brief 2-1 lead, only to see Hillsdale answer back in the next half inning. Junior Kate Ardrey, swinging one of the team's hottest bats of late, opened the inning with a single, and was later brought home on an RBI single by junior Melissa Felkey. Ardrey was 2-for-3 in the ballgame.
Grunert opened the fifth smacking a double high off the wall in center field, and once again scored, courtesy of a Garceau single.
In game two, it was sophomore Sarah Klopfer's turn in the spotlight, as she put together a marvelous performance on the mound.
Klopfer fanned five batters, didn't walk one, and scattered six hits in the complete-game shutout performance. Of her 120 pitches in the game, 88 were strikes, and she did an effective job of getting ahead of the hitters from start to finish.
The only run of the game came thanks to a well-placed bunt by Ardrey, which scored freshman Jessie Fox with the game-winning run. Fox pinch-ran for Jessica Knepper, who led off the inning with a double.
Tiffin held Hillsdale to just five hits in the game. Grunert, Bekah Kastning and Ainsley Ellison accounted for the other hits, while Ellison upped her school-record stolen bases total to 24 with two swipes on the day.