Julie Kendall
Sports Editor
Battling the rain and a nationally-ranked No. 12 DePauw University squad last Saturday, April 14, the Wooster Scots softball team split an afternoon double header against their NCAC opponents at home. The Scots earned their victory in game one with a strong performance from pitcher Gina Pirolozzi ’13, before committing a string of errors in game two which led to a 6-0 loss.
Game one started off with a first-inning offensive effort by Lauren Swinehart ’12, who hit a double to score the first RBI of the day. DePauw responded in the second inning with an unearned run to tie the game at one. After a single put Swinehart on base at the bottom of the sixth, Carly Schoestein ’15 crushed a two-run homer, the first of her career. Pirolozzi earned the win, giving up only two hits and striking out three in seven innings on the mound.
As the rainfall intensified during the second game of the series, the Tigers capitalized on a pitching error and other fielding mistakes by the Scots in the third inning, gaining two unearned runs to capture a 3-0 lead. DePauw continued their offensive run after a 30-minute rain delay, scoring three more runs while limiting the Scots to a mere three hits for the game.
Leading the offense on the day were Schoenstein, Swinehardt, Paige Goldberg ’15 and Demi Hart ’15 with two hits apiece.
The Scots hosted Denison University for anther conference double-header on Tuesday, ending the day with one more win and one more loss.
Wooster fell 7-6 in the first outing against the Big Red. Pirolozzi gave up two walks to kick off the first inning, which led to a three-run homer by Denison’s Meghan Edwards. Pirolozzi would have her own success at bat in the fourth inning, driving in Swinehart and Schoestein with a three-run homer to tie the score. The game heated up in the fifth inning, with each team scoring three runs on two hits to preserve the tie. After loading the bases at the top of the sixth, Denison scored an unearned run to take a permeantnt lead.
The Fighting Scots bounced back to win the evening’s second game 3-0. Pitcher Jenn Horton ’13 limited Denison’s batters to only three hits, and later contributed an RBI on a single to left field at the top of the sixth inning. Swinehart delivered two hits in the victory, including one RBI.
After Tuesday, the Scots’ overall record stood at 18-10 (5-5 NCAC). They faced Otterbein on Thursday (after press time), and will travel to Gambier, OH, tomorrow afternoon to play two games against the Ladies of Kenyon College.