Game 1 box score: Hillsdale 9, Walsh 0 (5 inn.)
Game 2 box score: Hillsdale 9, Walsh 7
The Charger softball team ran its winning streak to seven straight with a home doubleheader sweep of Walsh University on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon at home.
Hillsdale won game one 9-0, triggering the NCAA"s run rule after 4 1/2 innings. Game two saw the Cavs make a furious seventh-inning comeback, but ultimately, the Chargers won again 9-7, running their overall record to 15-16 overall and 9-3 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference.
One of the common elements in the team's current winning streak has been terrific offensive production from throughout the lineup. In all seven of those wins, the Charger offense produced at least 10 hits.
In game one, in just four innings and 23 at bats, Hillsdale pounded out 13 hits, batting .565 as a team in the 9-0 win over the Cavs. Five different players had multi-hit games and eight different players scored the team's nine runs.
Junior Victoria Addis provided one of the key hits in the win with a pinch-hit bases-loaded double that came within just a few feet of clearing the right field fence. It was her first at bat of the weekend and she hit the cover off the ball while playing a key role in the Chargers' offensive surge.
Senior Katie Kish went 3-for-3 with 3 RBI, the latter being a season-high. Senior Amanda Marra put together her second streak of six consecutive hits of the season in game one, picking up singles in each of her first two at bats.
Senior Jessica Taylor stroked two doubles, drove in a run and scored twice, while sophomore Madison Stoner went 2-for-3 with 2 RBI and a run scored.
Freshman pitcher Camryn Olson recorded her first career win, tossing a complete-game shutout of the Cavs. She allowed just five hits and forced a number of groundball outs, helping to set up easy plays for her defense to keep Walsh off the scoreboard.
Marra didn't slow down in game two, getting a single, double and triple, going 3-for-4 with two more runs scored and two runs batted in. Since March 13, Marra has raised her batting average 165 points and now is hitting a robust .394 on the season.
Walsh struck for two runs in the top of the first inning, but Hillsdale answered with four runs in the bottom of the second to take the lead for good. Kish's infield single scoring Natalie Walters started the rally. Marra doubled home Emma Johnson and Kish, and junior Sam Catron followed with an RBI single, scoring Marra to make it a 4-2 Charger lead.
Sydney San Juan added a clutch two-out, two-run single while Taylor and Johnson each hit run-scoring doubles for Hillsdale. Catron, coming off the best day of her career Friday, went 2-for-4 with a double and 2 RBI in thegame two win, while Taylor stayed hot, going 3-for-3 with a walk and a run batted in.
PHOTO: Todd Lancaster