MILWAUKEE, Wis. – A big second inning and a lights out performance from junior pitcher Rachel DeJongh gave Edgewood College the opportunity to play one more game in the opening day of the 2015 NACC Softball Tournament. With the win, the Eagles will now play No. 2 Benedictine at 2:00 pm as part of the double-elimination tournament.
Concordia Wisconsin got on board in the bottom of the first thanks to an illegal pitch with a runner on third, but DeJongh shut down the Falcons the rest of the way. The Eagles responded to the early deficit with a huge second inning. The Eagles took advantage of three Falcons errors and received RBIs from Alyssa Schulting and Martha Sommers. That brought the top of the lineup back to the plate in the same inning and Kylie Clark singled through the left side for an RBI and Alexis Unser reached on a dropped fly ball that scored another.
The score would remain 4-1 until the fourth inning, when Katie Landon had an RBI groundout. Freshman third baseman Sabrina Maicke then smacked her fifth home run of the season to the opposite field to give the Eagles the commanding lead.
DeJongh's only slip up came in the next half inning, when Falcons catcher Carly Sobrilsky launched her ninth long ball of the year.
DeJongh responded by knocking in an insurance run in the next half inning with a fielder's choice in the fifth. DeJongh then struck out the side in the fifth, faced only four batters in the sixth and had a 1-2-3 seventh to pick up her eighth win of the season.
Clark, Maicke and Kayla Updike all finished with two hits for the Eagles while seven different players recorded RBIs. Alexis Unser had one of those RBIs and also turned an unassisted double play and made a diving stop to get a runner out in the third.
Melissa Perkins was tagged with the loss and falls to 14-8 on the season. Leadoff hitter Christine Sharon and right fielder Alexis Holsten each had two hits to lead CUW offensively.
The Eagles will move on to play No. 2 Benedictine University at 2:00 pm as part of the double-elimination NACC Tournament. The Eagles fell to BenU 5-0 and 10-1 back on March 30 in the team's first NACC matchup of the regular season.
