BLUFFTON, Ohio - The Bluffton University softball team split a pair of non-conference games with Oberlin on a warm Tuesday, April 4. Bluffton moved to 11-11 on the season following its first home doubleheader in nearly three weeks.
The visitors scored three in the third, one in the fourth and two more in the seventh on the way to a 6-0 lead. Riley Hammonds (Russia) broke up the shutout with an RBI single that plated senior Sammi Urban (Troy/Miami East), but that was all the offense Bluffton could muster up in the lidlifter.
Erin Norman (Pleasant Hill/Newton) slipped to 6-5 after allowing six runs on eight hits in seven innings of work. The Bluffton defense let Norman down as four of the six runs were of the unearned variety. Five Bluffton hitters finished with one hit apiece in game one.
Game two was a pitching duel from start to finish with all three runs scored in the fifth inning. Oberlin went up 1-0 when the Yeowomen used a Chutko triple to score the game's first run.
Pinch hitter Kaylei Barnett (Wapakoneta) opened the bottom of the frame with a single to shortstop. Freshman Kaylee Grant (Lima/Shawnee) followed with a base knock to right and one out later, Bobbi Adams (Delaware/Rutherford B. Hayes) delivered a two-run double to the wall in center field and Grace Fillinger (Hinckley/Highland) did the rest. She retired the final six batters to help Bluffton notch a split on Tuesday.
Fillinger was both dominant and efficient in the circle and she helped herself with five assists and a putout. The standout senior scattered six hits and needed just 56 pitches (46 strikes) to secure her fifth victory of the season!
Grant went 2-for-2 with a walk and Adams drove in both Bluffton runs.
The Beavers will kick off Heartland Conference action with a long trip to Hanover on Maundy Thursday, April 6, 2023. Game one is slated for 3 p.m.
-BEAVERS-
