MARQUETTE, Mich. – Despite leaving the bases loaded in the final inning of another close loss to UW-Stevens Point, 4-3, the Edgewood College softball team rode pitcher Shannon Whitmus and leadoff hitter Laurissa Belott to their first win of the season, 6-1, over Northland on Sunday afternoon.
The Eagles left the season-opening Finlandia Dome Tournament with a 1-3 record and some confidence going into the rest of the season after only being outscored, 21-20, over the first four games. In addition, the Eagles were led by an influx of youth as freshmen accounted for 21 of the team's 32 hits thus far.
After finding themselves down 4-0 through five innings, the Eagles started a late rally that fell short against UW-Stevens Point, 4-3, on Sunday morning. Freshman Amanda Meister (0-1), who also tossed six solid innings and gave up four runs (one earned) in her second career start, led the comeback attempt with a one-out single in the top of the sixth. Grace Delleman immediately followed with a ground rule double that led to a Jordan Anderson RBI sacrifice fly and a Hanna Fisher RBI single to cut the deficit to 4-2.
The Pointers (3-0) were held scoreless in the bottom of the sixth to help set up a dramatic, bases loaded finish for the Eagles. With one on and two out, Belott came up and laced an RBI single to center field that scored Maddie Minik. A Meister walk and Delleman single loaded the bases for Anderson, but a strikeout ended the rally as the Eagles dropped their second-straight one run game.
UW-Stevens Point recorded all four of their runs in the first four innings with three of them unearned thanks to three Eagle errors.
Delleman finished with two of the team's six hits in defeat.
Whitmus (1-2) had four strikeouts in her second complete game and Belott posted three of the Eagles eight hits as they took down Northland, 6-1, and beat the Lumberjills for the first time in four meetings.
Belott, who finished with multiple hits for the second time this season, sparked a five-run second inning with an RBI single and gave her team a 6-0 lead. Meister added a 2-run single and later scored on an error by the first baseman and Delleman scored Belott for a second time thanks to a sac fly to center field to complete the Eagles biggest inning of the year.
Delleman had brought home Belott with an RBI ground-rule double in the first inning to open up the scoring.
The six-run lead was more than enough as the Lumberjills (0-3) mustered up one run in the top of the sixth on an RBI double by Natalie Erler. Northland's starting pitcher Natalie Alfaro suffered the loss after surrendering five earned runs and seven hits over five innings. She was also the only Lumberjill with multiple hits.
Whitmus earned her first win of the year after allowing just one earned run. The Verona, Wis. native finished off a strong opening weekend with a 2.02 ERA over 17.1 innings pitched in three appearances.
Belott led the team with a 9-for-16 performance (.563 batting average) at the plate and added four runs and three RBIs in her first four career games.
The Eagles will take a bit of a break before playing 10 games over their six-day Florida spring break trip to Fort Myers, Fla. from March 9-14.
