HANOVER, Ind. – The Earlham College softball team split a doubleheader at Hanover College to continue HCAC action on Saturday afternoon.
GAME ONE: EARLHAM 6 HANOVER 4
Morgan Cooksey scored the win with a complete game in the circle. The junior allowed just two runs on three hits before a Panther rally in the seventh inning. Cooksey also scored two strikeouts.
Offensively,
Bo Shelton went 3-3 with two runs scored, a double, a triple, a steal and three RBI.
Mack Harvey went 3-4 with two runs scored.
After a leadoff single by Harvey in the top of the first inning, Shelton hit a one-out triple to left field for a 1-0 lead.
Shelby Hill then brought Shelton home with a double into the right-center gap.
The Quakers led off the top of the third inning with three straight hits, including an RBI-single by Shelton for a 3-0 Quaker lead. The Panthers then got on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning with an unearned run.
Earlham added two runs on two hits in the top of the fifth inning, including an RBI by
Ashley Lewis with the bases loaded, and a one-run single by
Jade Green with two outs.
Cierra James reached as the leadoff batter in the sixth inning, and came home on an RBI-single by Shelton for the final Quaker run of the game. Hanover got two runs on one hit and one error in the bottom of the sixth inning.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Panthers strung together three hits for two runs, but Cooksey shut the door with a groundout with two runners on base.
GAME TWO: EARLHAM 3 HANOVER 4
Shelby Messer threw a complete game with four earned runs and one strikeout in 6.2 innings of work.
The Panthers took the lead in the bottom of the first inning, scoring a run after two straight hits to open the inning.
The Quakers took the lead in the top of the fifth inning with a three-run blast by Shelton. The Quakers held the lead until the bottom of the seventh, when Hanover brought home two runs on five hits.
Earlham is back in action tomorrow with an HCAC doubleheader at Franklin College beginning at 1 pm.
