By: Joseph Watkins, sports information assistant
CLERMONT, Fla. - The Bluffton University softball team took the diamond for day two of THE Spring games on Monday, March 2, 2020. The Beavers ruled the day with a 5-3 victory in game one over the Chatham Cougars, and an 11-3 rout of Thiel. The Beavers stand 3-1 heading in to day three. It marks the first 3-1 start since 2017 when Bluffton opened the season with a 7-3 mark in Florida.
Bluffton got on the board first in inning one when Courtney Jasinski (Englewood/Northmont) doubled to right center, sending Lily Tate (Mount Gilead/Northmor) across the dish for a 1-0 lead. A Caylin Morstadt (Delaware/Rutherford B. Hayes) sacrifice fly to left field plated Jasinksi to put Bluffton up 2-0 after the half inning. Chatham responded in the top half of the second thanks to three hits and an error as the Cougars took a 3-2 lead.
In the bottom half of inning two with two runners on base, Tate looped a double down the right field line that plated two for a 4-3 lead. A Sydney Bowen (Convoy/Crestview) single in the bottom of the sixth picked up pinch runner Emily Dyson (Payne/Wayne Trace), making it a 5-3 victory in game one.
Molly Bollinger (Lima/Shawnee) got the nod in the opener, going two innings and giving up three runs on four hits while also fanning two. Freshman Erin Norman (Pleasant Hill/Newton) nailed down her second collegiate win (2-0) in as many days as she worked five scoreless innings in relief, giving up five hits with four punchouts. Bollinger and Norman did not issue any free passes in the win.
Tate, who drove in a pair of runs, Jasinski and Taylor Shimp (St. Marys/Memorial) all finished with multiple hits in game one.
Bluffton opened up a 6-0 lead midway through the fifth when Thiel's error on a Bowen grounder allowed the Beavers to put two runs across the plate. They put the game on ice an inning later when a fielder's choice, a Sydney Zinkon (Fresno/Ridgewood) double, a ground out and a two-run Bowen single made it 11-0 heading to bottom of the sixth. Thiel rallied with three in the bottom half of the sixth, but the Beavers were too much as they wrapped up their second mercy-rule in two days with the 11-3 victory.
Grace Fillinger (Hinckley/Highland) got the victory in game two, tossing six innings. She allowed just three runs, two earned, on five hits, and struck out one in the win.
Jasinski, Morstadt and Zinkon all rapped two hits in game two with Zinkon scoring three times. Bowen and Morstadt drove in two runs apiece. Riley Langstaff (Findlay) and Sammi Urban (Troy/Miami East) each crossed the dish two times against Thiel.
Bluffton is back at THE Spring Games on Tuesday, March 3, at 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. when the Beavers take on Bridgewater and Muskingum.
-BEAVERS-