OWENSBORO, Ky. --- For the second straight day the Bellarmine University softball team split a doubleheader on the road, losing the opener to Kentucky Wesleyan,1-0, then winning game two 3-0 on Sunday afternoon.
GAME 1: Kentucky Wesleyan 1, Bellarmine 0
Kentucky Wesleyan's Ashlee Winstead was able to do something very few pitchers have been able to do this year, shut down Bellarmine's high octane offense. Winstead threw a complete game shutout for the Panthers, allowing just four hits and striking out three.
Two of those hits came off the bat of junior
Megan Murdoch, who went 2-3 from the plate to raise her season average to .418.
Alicia Miller pitched well for the Knights, scattering six hits over 6.0 innings and striking out a pair of Panthers.
The lone run scored in the opener came in the sixth as Megan Sallee singled to bring home Katy Kruse. Down to their last three outs, Bellarmine tried to rally in the top of the sixth as Murdoch and
Madi Ratliff led off the inning with back-to-back singles.
After
Abby Lenhart flied out and Murdoch was put out at third on a fielder's choice, freshman
Tanner Tevis was brought in to pinch run of Ratliff. Seeing her first action on the year after sustaining a preseason injury, Tevis stole third while
Scarlett Powers moved to second with two outs.
Winstead buckled down though, getting
Kelsey Hicks to fly out to right field to end the game and earn the victory.
Box Score
GAME 2: Bellarmine 3, Kentucky Wesleyan
The Knights came out on the other side of a shutout victory in the finale, scoring three runs in the first and getting a strong performance from
Amanda Meyer in the pitching circle.
In the first,
Cynthia Brown rifled a single up the middle, eventually stealing second. After
Lauren Summe singled, Brown would take advantage of a costly mistake by KWC starting pitcher Jordan Vertz. Murdoch hit a rocket back to Vertz, who made a spectacular grab for the out, but threw the ball away trying to double up Brown at second base. The speedy Brown would motor all the way around to score and put the Knights up 1-0.
Vertz error proved to be even more costly as Ratliff served up her ninth home run on the year in the next at bat to stretch BU's lead to 3-0.
With the lead in hand, Meyer took the reins and guided the Knights to their 17th victory of the season. The senior from Harrison, Ohio earned her 34th career victory as a Knight, third most in the program's history.
Box Score
Bellarmine returns home next weekend to host the two schools the hold the top two spots in the GLVC East, Indianapolis and St. Joseph's.
