Williamsburg, KY – For the second time in three seasons, the #24 UC softball team swept opening day with a pair of wins. Cumberlands welcomed Northwestern Ohio to the UC Softball Complex, defeating them 9-0 in five innings and then 3-1.
The pitching staff was lights out for the Pats, giving up just one run in 12 innings of work.
Kaiti White pitched a complete five-inning game shutout to start the season with three strikeouts and just four hits against. In game two,
Morgan Radford pitched six innings, giving up one run, before
Talli Burgess picked up career save #11 in the seventh inning.
The bats came alive for the Patriots, as a team they hit .432 with 19 hits and 10 RBI.
Carly Oliver in her debut, went 3-6 at the plate with three RBI and a home run.
Meryn Livingston also had three RBI, hers off two hits. Both
Hailey Wood and
Maddie Sickau got three hits in the contests and combined to be six of the runs scored for the Pats.
GAME ONE: UC RUN-RULES UNOH 9-0 (5 INN.)
The game started with White striking out the leadoff batter looking and the momentum immediately went to UC. Wood was walked and stole second then Oliver was hit by a pitch to put speed on the bases. The double steal was on with Wood taking off for third. The Racers tried to throw her out, but the catcher's throw was to an empty base, resulting in both Wood and Oliver coming around to score before UC even got a hit.
Makenzie Keatts got to third base off an error by the Racers and Sickau brought her to score for the first RBI of the season, making the score 3-0.
Northwestern Ohio almost answered back with a run two innings later. A runner was on first base and a base hit to centerfield had the runner coming around to score but a perfectly executed relay of Wood to Sickau to Livingston hosed the runner down at the plate, leaving the score at 3-0.
That ignited the offense, who exploded in the bottom of the third.
Emily Bryant started the hit parade with a double to left field. Sickau then secured her second RBI of the day, this time with a single to left field. The bases got loaded off a walk to
Bailey Turnbow and an infield single for
Mackenzie Pawlak. Livingston stepped to the plate and cleared the bases for a three-run double extending the lead to 7-0.
Three groundouts for the Racers put UC back on offense. Wood singled through the 5-6 hole and then stole her third base of the day. Oliver battled through a long at-bat, fouling off over 10 pitches before finding the right one to crush over the left field wall for a two-run home run.
With the score at 9-0 in the fifth inning, the run-rule was in effect. White started the inning with her third strikeout of the game and got the next two batters to go down in order to solidify the win.
GAME TWO: CUMBERLANDS DEFEATS NORTHWESTERN OHIO, 3-1
The second game in the doubleheader started out in much of the same one as the first. A strikeout to the first batter and Cumberlands scoring in their half of the inning. Wood led off with a single and stole second, and was able to score off Oliver's single through the left side, to put UC up 1-0.
Sickau kick started the offense in the third inning with a single. Then Turnbow earned her first hit and RBI as a Patriot, doubling to right center field to score Sickau and push the lead to 2-0.
Radford got her second strikeout of the game in the fourth and then let the offense take over. Wood walked and was brought around to score after back-to-back singles from Oliver and Keatts.
The Patriots kept the 3-0 lead until the seventh inning, when a leadoff walk and an infield single scored a Racer. But the Patriots limited the damage to just one, thanks in part to a strikeout from Burgess who came in for relief pitching.
The 9-0 run-rule win marks back-to-back run-rules to open a season for the program. Cumberlands led Northwestern Ohio in every statistical category as a team.
The three-game series will wrap up, tomorrow, Saturday, February 11 at 12PM ET. The game will be at the UC Softball Complex.
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