NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. - The Bluffton University softball team exploded for 23 runs in a sweep at Manchester on Tuesday, March 16, 2021. Bluffton improved to 2-4 on the season, while Manchester slipped to 1-3.
With the game tied 1-1 in the top of the second, consecutive singles by Emily Dyson (Payne/Wayne Trace), Lily Tate (Mt. Gilead/Northmor) and Sydney Bowen (Convoy/Crestview) loaded the sacks for sophomore catcher Bobbi Adams (Delaware/Rutherford B. Hayes). One swing of the bat from Adams made the score 5-0 as her grand slam cleared the bases!
Adams made it 7-1 in the fourth when her single plated Dyson and Bowen. Taylor Shimp (St. Marys/Memorial), Bryn Cisco (Lancaster/Fairfield Union) and Taylor Steinke (Findlay) all crossed the dish in the fourth as Bluffton opened up a 10-1 lead over the Spartans.
Manchester pulled back within seven when the home team scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth, but Adams made sure five innings would be enough as she cranked home run number two of the game, a three-run shot with Bowen and Tate crossing the plate!
Adams put her name all over the single-game record book with nine RBI, three more than the previous school mark, and two homers which equaled the Bluffton record for dingers in a game. She went 3-of-4 with two runs scored to go along with her nine RBI. Bowen scored four times which also equaled the school record. Tate and Dyson both scored two runs and Steinke drove in a pair.
Grace Fillinger (Hinckley/Highland) picked up her first win after allowing three runs on four hits in four innings of work. Katie Fleshman (Delaware/Rutherford B. Hayes) worked a shutout fifth to cap off game one.
Senior Riley Langstaff (Findlay) singled home Sammi Urban (Troy/Miami East) knotting game two at 1-1 in the top of the third inning. Manchester went back ahead 2-1 in the home half before a 4-run fourth for the Beavers made the score 5-2. A Bowen two-bagger picked up Lexus Rutledge (Henderson, KY/Henderson County) and an Adams groundout plated Tate, putting Bluffton up 3-2. Steinke tripled home Bowen and the barrage finally ended after Shimp's base knock plated Steinke for a 5-2 advantage.
Rutledge and Steinke added RBI singles in the fifth with Kryshel Dales (Defiance/Ayersville) and Tate scoring for the Beavers and then three insurance runs in the seventh proved crucial as Manchester scored in the bottom of the frame and had the bases loaded when the game ended 10-5 in favor of the visitors. Erin Norman's (Pleasant Hill/Newton) run-scoring single drove in Steinke for tally number 23 of the day.
Tate and Rutledge both rapped three hits in game two. Steinke, Shimp, Langstaff and Norman also chipped in with multiple safeties for the Beavers. Tate scored three times and Steinke drove in two runs.
Norman worked a complete game, allowing five runs, just two earned, on eight hits in seven innings of work. She struck out three and walked three.
Bluffton will hit the road again on Saturday, March 20, when the Beavers travel to Adrian College in Michigan for a pair of games with the Bulldogs. Game one is slated to start at 1 p.m.
-BEAVERS-