Lincoln Plews
Senior Sports Writer
The Fighting Scots softball team dropped back-to-back close games against DePauw University this past Saturday, but bounced back to split a pair of games with Wittenberg on Sunday, bringing them to an even .500 on the season at 13-13.
The games against DePauw in Greencastle, Ind. were both gritty, low scoring battles. In the first game, the teams were tied at 1-1 through seven innings. The extra innings were equally lacking in offense, until DePauw managed a walk-off two-run homer in the bottom of the 10th to take the win 3-1.
The second game worked out much the same, as the teams went into the bottom of the 7th tied at two apiece, only to have DePauw knock in a walk-off hit to take the game 3-2.
After their tough losses on Saturday, the Scots returned to Wooster on Sunday to play another conference double-header against their conference rivals, the Wittenberg Tigers. The Tigers came to Wooster with a record of 13-6, giving them the best overall win percentage in the conference.
The first game looked very much like the previous matchups against DePauw, with the score tied 2-2 at the end of regulation, again forcing the game into extra innings. The score remained tied until the top of the 10th inning, when Wittenberg produced an offensive explosion, scoring five runs and taking an insurmountable 7-2 lead.
After three games in two days (two of which went into extra innings), the Scots were exhausted going into the final game against Wittenberg. They kept their resolve, however, and took an early 1-0 lead thanks to a triple by Paige Goldberg ’15. She was brought home on the next play by a sacrifice bunt from Erica Villa ’13.
The Fighting Scots increased their lead to five runs in the second inning, thanks to another RBI from Villa, a bases-loaded walk drawn by Taylor Raybuck ’16 and a two-run single from Demi Hart ’15.
Wittenberg scored one unearned run in the fourth, but Wooster locked down and held their lead to take the win, 5-1.
Wooster currently stands in seventh place in the North Coast Athletic Conference at 2-6, six games behind fourth-place Kenyon College (the top four teams enter into the conference tournament in May). However, with 10 conference games remaining on the schedule, including a home double-header against Kenyon on Saturday, the Scots are still in the running for the conference tournament.