Game 1 box score: Hillsdale 6, Malone 5
Game 2 box score: Hillsdale 8, Malone 6
Junior shortstop Sam Catron has established herself as one of the strongest hitters in this region. Friday afternoon, she had the best hitting day of her career.
Catron homered and drove in a total of seven runs in Hillsdale's two softball wins over Malone University, 6-5 and 8-6 at Johnny Williams Field.
The wins extend the Chargers' winning streak to five games and improves the team to 13-16 overall and 7-3 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference.
Game one ended in walk-off fashion when Catron punched a double to left field, scoring senior Katie Kish with the game-winning run. The RBI capped off a victory that saw the Chargers rally from an early 5-1 deficit. A big part of that rally came on the efficient pitching of redshirt-freshman Julia Sayles.
In a relief appearance, Sayles recorded her first win of the season by tossing five innings with no runs allowed and two strikeouts while issuing just one walk. She located her pitches well and forced a good number of groundball outs. The defense behind Sayles did its part, playing clean softball and making the simple play to quickly end any Malone threat.
Catron was 3-for-4 with a career-high 4 RBI and two doubles in the opener. Kish was 2-for-3 and scored twice, while both Emma Johnson and Renee Bielawa went 1-for-3 with a run scored.
In game two Catron hit a two-run home run over the left field fence to add to her huge day. She went 2-for-4 with a run scored and three runs batted in. Senior Amanda Marra, who came into action on Friday the second-leading hitter in the G-MAC, went 4-for-4 with two doubles and three runs scored. This was her second four-hit game of the conference season.
The Chargers raced out to an early lead, extending a 3-1 lead to 6-1 with a three-run fifth inning. They tacked on two more in the sixth before the Pioneer bats heated up and tightened the game in the seventh.
Sophomore Natalie Walters went the distance in the circle in game two, allowing one earned run while recording her eighth win of the season.
Madison Stoner went 2-for-4 with a run scored, and Madison Rathbun added a double to the Hillsdale offense in the game two win.
PHOTO: Todd Lancaster