WILMINGTON, Ohio - The Bluffton University softball team dropped a pair of non-conference games at Wilmington on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. The Beavers slipped to 6-10 on the season.
A three-run Quaker homer in the first followed by eight more tallies in the home second put Wilmington up 11-1 after two innings. The lone Bluffton tally was freshman Grace Gronberg (Danville) who scored from second thanks to an error with Taryn Hampton (Fostoria/Hopewell Louden) swinging the bat.
The Beavers started to make inroads into the huge deficit with four runs in the top of the third. Gronberg doubled home Mia McCartney (North Baltimore) and Reagen O'Brien (Bellbrook) plated Julia Tegeder (Hamilton) with a sacrifice fly to left. Hampton's single to left drove in Gronberg and Ella McLear (Greenville), making the score 11-5.
Back-to-back two-baggers by McCartney and Tegeder added up to a run in the fourth before McCartney's single and Tegeder's double an inning later was good for three more runs.
Junior Kaylee Grant (Lima/Shawnee) smacked a two-run dinger in the seventh, but Wilmington scored in every inning outside the third on the way to a 16-11 victory in game one.
Grant, McCartney, Tegeder and Ella McCombs (Springfield/Southeastern) all tallied two hits in the lidlifter. Tegeder drove in three runs, while Hampton and Grant finished with two RBI apiece. McCartney scored three runs for the visitors. Grant and Gronberg both crossed the dish twice.
Gronberg slipped to 2-5 after surendering 16 runs on 16 hits with five strikeouts and four walks.
Another big start for the Quakers put the home team on the road to a 13-0 mercy-rule victory in the nightcap. Wilmington scored eight times in inning one and never looked back, holding Bluffton to just a pair of safeties in game two. Tegeder and Riley Hammonds (Russia) notched the only hits for the Beavers.
Hayley Lewis (Kettering/Fairmont) fell to 2-4 as the Quakers got to her for eight runs on six hits with three walks in one-third of an inning.
Bluffton will be on the road for a twin-bill at Albion College on Saturday, March 22. Game one is slated for 1 p.m.
-BEAVERS-