INDIANAPOLIS - The Marian softball team swept the St. Francis Cougars in their home opener, as the Knights won game one with a score of 1-0 and won game two with a score of 10-4. The Knights are now 13-2 overall and 2-1 in the conference.
Game 1 | Marian 1-0 St. Francis
Olivia Stunkel got the ball in game one, and had a no-hitter up until the top of the fourth inning. The Knights offense had a slow start as well to gain their first hit in the fourth inning, with
Brooke Knox hitting a deep hit into center field to get on base.
Sierra Norman followed up with a triple into right field allowing Knox to advance to home and score the singular run of the game.
After a scoreless inning for both sides, the Cougars had the tying runner on base in the top of the sixth with only one out on the board. The Knights took charge with Viggiano grounding out to Knox to allow her to throw over to Norman to ignite the double play to get out of the inning.
The Knights had four hits in the game with,
Savannah Harweger,
Brooke Knox,
Sierra Norman, and
Grace Meyer all tallying one each. Stunkel took the win with 10 strikeouts, and only two hits given up.
Game 2 | Marian 10-4 St. Francis
After a scoreless inning for both sides the Knights quickly got on the board in the bottom of the second with
Caroline Roop advancing to first on a missed catch by the Cougar's pitcher to allow Hayley advancing to third and
Grace Meyer to advance home on the error and score the first run of the night. Marian continued to increase their lead in the next inning with
Savannah Harweger advancing to first on an error by St. Francis' short stop to then proceed to advance to a missed catch by first base. Abbey Madere grounded out short stop to allow Harweger to advance to home. Meyer hit a double deep into left center gaining two RBI's with
Abbey Hofmann and Norman advancing to home to increase the lead 4-0 going into the fourth inning.
St. Francis gained their footing with a single into right center. In the top of the fifth the Cougars continued to chip away at the Knights lead with two consecutive runs, the second unearned. Marian fired back quickly with five runs scored in the bottom of the fifth by, Hofmann, Meyer, Knox, Harweger, and
Lily Wendt to bring the score 9-3 in favor of the Knights.
Marian and St. Francis traded runs back and fourth in the 6th inning with Miller scoring a run for the Cougars, and Hofmann scoring another run for the Knights to secure the win and bring the final score 10-3.
Marian had 11 hits in game two, with
Grace Meyer leading the team and going 3-3 with three RBI's and two runs scored. Madere, Greene, and Wendt all had two, while Norman and Hofmann each had a base hit. Jaylah Guillam took the win to give up six hits and strike out one batter.
Macy Coan came in as the relief for Guilliam to give up two hits and struck out on batter.
Lauren Mayer came in to close out the game pitching the last inning for the Knights.
The Knights will be back in action tomorrow, March 16th at home for a double header against Huntington University with first pitch set for 12:00 pm.
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