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MVNU sweeps HU softball team

Paige Eichelberger, a sophomore on the Huntington University softball team, makes contact with the ball during the first of two games against visiting Mount Vernon Nazarene University on Tuesday, March 26. The Foresters’ first two home games of the season got spoiled by the Cougars, who won 3-1 and 22-8.
Paige Eichelberger, a sophomore on the Huntington University softball team, makes contact with the ball during the first of two games against visiting Mount Vernon Nazarene University on Tuesday, March 26. The Foresters’ first two home games of the season got spoiled by the Cougars, who won 3-1 and 22-8. Photo by Steve Clark.

The Huntington University softball team got swept by visiting Mount Vernon Nazarene University, falling 3-1 and 22-8, on Tuesday, March 26.

In the opening game, Mount Vernon scored a pair of runs in the top of the fourth inning, then pushed another run across in the sixth. While Huntington countered with a solo tally of its own in the bottom of the frame, that would prove to be all the offense it could muster against Cougar hurler Jennifer Kurelic and her defense.

Sophomore Jada Crofoot produced the Foresters’ lone score when she smacked a double that plated sophomore Paige Eichelberger, who logged two of the team’s seven hits.

Meghan Fretz went the distance in the circle for Huntington, yielding nine hits and Mount Vernon’s trio of runs, all of which were earned, in seven innings. The sophomore, 3-4, fanned one and walked one.

Kurelic also turned in a complete-game performance, permitting the Foresters’ seven hits and solo tally while striking out four and walking none to earn the win.

In the second contest, there was offense aplenty. The Cougars tallied nine runs through the first two frames while the Foresters countered with eight scores in the first four to make for a tight affair. Unfortunately for the hosts, though, their offense went cold after that while the visitors’ bats heated up. Mount Vernon plated three runners in the fifth, then erupted for 10 runs in the sixth to bring the game to a premature end via the run rule.

Huntington, 5-9, 1-3 in Crossroads League play, finished with eight hits. Crofoot highlighted the Foresters’ offensive effort with a pair of doubles and three runs batted in. Eichelberger registered three hits and an RBI while scoring three runs. Freshman Kiera Stacy hit a two-run double while sophomore Kennedy Krull hit a run-scoring two-bagger and junior Karley Blankenship smacked an RBI single.

Mallory West took the loss for Huntington. The sophomore, 2-5, allowed seven hits and nine runs, six of which were earned, in the opening 1.1 innings.

Mount Vernon, 10-6, 5-1 in league action, banged out 19 hits for the game. Katelyn Perkins contributed four of those base pokes and an RBI while Alyson Adams supplied a home run and five RBI to the team’s cause.

Perkins also picked up the win in the circle. The hurler gave up five hits and six runs, five of which were earned, in the first 2.1 frames.