Moon Township, Pa. – The RMU softball team split a doubleheader with Northern Kentucky Sunday at Frank Ignatius Grein Softball Field in Highland Heights, Ky., falling in game one, 1-0, before posting a 5-3 win in game two. By taking the rubber match, the Colonials earned the series win over the Norse and improved to 19-13 (.594) overall during the 2022 season, including 8-3 (.727) in the Horizon League.
GAME 1 • L, 0-1
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
NKU earned the win in walk-off fashion, scoring the lone run of the contest in the bottom of the seventh inning. Maddie Lacer capped an eight-pitch at bat by singling to left with one out and moved into scoring position when pinch hitter Trinity Robertson provided an infield single. RMU starter
Rachael Rhinehart was able to get the second out of the frame when Jenna O'Hair lined out to sophomore shortstop
Charlotte Grover. Staring at extra innings for the second consecutive game, the Norse called on Arrington Walker to pinch hit, and, ahead in the count, she laced a single to right. Senior
Brittney Seibert, who threw a runner out at the plate Saturday, came up throwing again and fired a dart to catcher
Meadow Sacadura, but Lacer slid in under the tag for the winning run.
IN CONTROL
The walk-off made a winner out of Alicia Flores, who was masterful in the circle for Northern Kentucky. She allowed just two hits and a walk and faced just three batters over the minimum. Grover hit a one-out double in the top of the second, while Sacadura singled down the left field line with one out in the fifth. Flores struck out 11, including seven punch outs of RMU's top three hitters in the lineup. She improved to 4-7 (.364) overall during the 2022 season from the circle.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Rhinehart took the tough-luck loss for RMU, as she yielded just three hits through the first six innings before the Norse came through in the bottom of the seventh. She faced 29 batters, striking out four and walking a pair.
GAME 2 • W, 5-3
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Shut out for the first time this season in league play, the Colonials wasted no time putting a run on the board in game two. Senior
Erika Bell provided an RBI double to center that brought home freshman
Alaina Koutsogiani with the game's first run. Koutsogiani had opened the contest with a bunt single before stealing second. Northern Kentucky answered in the home half of the first, as Kendyl McKeough took RMU sophomore starter
Jane Garver deep for a two-run home run to right center to push the Norse in front, 2-1. It wouldn't be the last home run hit on the afternoon.
GOING ONCE, GOING TWICE, GONE
Sacadura opened the top of the second by drawing a walk after fouling off the first two pitches from NKU starter Madisyn Eads. Sophomore
Catalina Saxen grabbed a 2-0 edge in the count as the next hitter before launching her second home run of the year to put the Colonials back in front, 3-2. Lauryn Hicks was called upon to relieve Eads, and after striking out junior
Avery Winchell, fifth-year
Alaina York connected for her first home run of the season to right to make it 4-2 in favor of RMU. Winchell would also clear the fences, jumping on the first pitch from Hicks with one out in the top of the fourth for her first of the year and a 5-2 edge for the Colonials.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Thanks to York and Winchell each going deep for the Colonials in the game two triumph, a total of nine different student-athletes have hit at least one home run during the 2022 season for RMU. Saxen finished 2-for-3 with a run and two RBI in game two, smacking a double in addition to her home run. In her 18 games, Saxen is hitting .333 (7-for-21) with a 1.105 on-base plus slugging, as four of her seven hits have gone for extra bases. The Colonials also matched a season high with their three home runs in game two, as RMU also finished with three round trippers in the
finale of a three-game set against Cleveland State (4/3), a 7-6 win.
CIRCLE K
The offense helped Garver even her overall record in the circle during the 2022 campaign at 2-2 (.500). She logged the first four innings, allowing a pair of earned runs on five hits while striking out four. Fifth-year
Taylor Rhinehart finished the final three innings of the victory to notch her third save of the season. She allowed just two hits and also struck out four.
UP NEXT
RMU returns home to the North Athletic Complex for a 10-game homestand. The Colonials open with a non-conference doubleheader against Kent State Tuesday, April 11, with a 2:00 p.m. first pitch.
Follow The Colonials: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | RMU Athletics Gameday App
