Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 Grand Rapids, MI - The Blue Devils softball team was final back on the field after a two-week hiatus from an outbreak of COVID in the area. LTU played conference opponent, Aquinas College on Wednesday night in a double header. Game 1 was a thriller at best as the game went into the 9th inning coming down to the last play. Game 1 pitchers were Makayla Benz and Clover Brandt. The final score in Game 1 was LTU 8, Aquinas 9. Game 2 pitchers were Madison Shumaker, Benz and Brandt. LTU lost Game 2 in 5 innings by a final score of 7-15.
Game 1 (LTU 8, Aquinas 9): The Blue Devils offense responded quickly to Aquinas's hot start, where they scored 5 runs in 3 innings. LTU was able to string together 5 unanswered runs to tie the game back up leading into the bottom of the 5th. AQ scored 1 in the bottom of the 5th to take the lead. The Blue Devils found themselves another late rally as they were able to come across the plate 3 more times from the 7th – 9th inning. Heading into the 9th inning LTU was up 8-6, then Aquinas hit a three-run walk off homer to end the game. Callie Tatum had herself a great day at the plate, she went 3-5, 1 run, 3 RBI. Nicole Powrozek went 2-5 on 2 runs. Another Blue Devil who had a solid offensive performance was Leah Kadlitz going 2-4, 2 RBI. LTU lost 8-9 in 9 innings.
How it Happened: Makayla Benz was the Game 1 starter for the Blue Devils. She struggled early in this game giving up 5 early runs on 3 hits. All runs were earned. Clover Brandt came in to relieve pitch the rest of the game, as she pitched a total of 8.0 innings. Brandt gave up 6 hits, 4 runs, 3 ER, 2 strikeouts and faced 35 batters.
The Blue Devils batters finished Game 1 with a team batting average of .282, 6 RBI, 5 KO's on 11 hits.
Game 2 (LTU 8, Cleary 5): Game 2 starter on the mound was lefty Madison Shumaker. Shumaker battled through adversity early giving up 4 runs in the 1st and 3 runs in the 2nd. She only pitched a total of 1.2 innings in this one until Makayla Benz came in as the relief pitcher. Madison gave up 8 hits, 7 runs, 5 ER. She faced a total of 15 batters in this one. Benz pitched 2.1 innings until she was subbed out by Clover Brandt. Benz gave up 4 hits on 5 runs. 2 strikeouts and faced 16 batters. Benz only pitched 0.1 innings.
How it Happened: LTU started this game off struggling to find any rhythm from the dish. They were able to score a couple of runs, but couldn't find their rhythm because AQ scored 7 early ones. A spark from the bats finally came from a couple hits in the top of the 5th where LTU was able to decrease the lead to 10-7, leading to a 5 run inning. Those RBI's in the 5th came from Callie Tatum and Sidney Croskey and Elizabeth Coon. AQ struck right back to increase the lead back to 8 scoring 5 runs in the bottom half of the inning, where this game then went final due to a mercy. LTU 7, Aquinas 15. The Blue Devils ended with 9 total hits on 4 errors. The teams batting average in this game was .333. LTU left 6 runners on base, 3 strikeouts and 5 RBI.
On Deck: The Blue Devils (9-10) is back on the field, Thursday, April 15th where they will travel south to Fort Wayne, Indiana and play conference opponent The Warriors of Indiana Tech University in a double header. The game will be played at Warrior Park. First pitch for Game 1 is schedule for 3 PM and first pitch for Game 2 will be scheduled to start 5 PM.
