Rain pushed the start of Saturday's River States Conference twinbill between IU Columbus and Rio Grande to 4:00. Everyone who watched, whether in person or online, was treated to high-level, entertaining softball. The first game saw the Crimson Pride come from behind to win a walkoff, 8-7 victory. The nightcap ended with a last inning, two-run rally that came up one run short.
Game 1
Rio Grande came to Columbus, Indiana after a long Friday doubleheader at Brescia, Kentucky. They had lost the opener 2-1 in 16 innings, and came back to win the second game 4-1. They wanted to get their offense going early, and they did just that. The bats came out hot in the first inning as Nigella Reck hit a 3-run homer and the Red Storm put up 4 runs in the top of the first.
The Crimson Pride answered back with 4 in the bottom of the frame.
Mallory Shelton singled in a run,
Emma Chism doubled in a pair, and
Linnea Baldner tied it with an RBI single.
Cierra Cramer doubled to lead off the second inning for IUC as they added two more runs, making it 6-4.
Rio Grande added single runs in each of the third, fourth and fifth innings to regain the lead 7-6.
Shelton led off the bottom of the sixth with a big solo home run to tie the game 7-7. Rio Grande put two runners on in the seventh, but
Chloe Linn, who came on in relief of starter
Destiny Forler in the fourth, was able retire the side without any runs.
Linn led off the bottom of the seventh with a single, and
Jessica Ebersole came in as a pinch runner.
Jazlynn Stewart followed with a base hit, and after
Renee Lecher followed with a single, the bases were loaded with nobody out.
Cierra Cramer hit into a force out at the plate, and Lex Heafner popped up to the pitcher for the second out, leaving it up to
Mallory Shelton. Shelton came through in the clutch with the game winning hit as the Crimson Pride claimed the 8-7 win.
Game 2
IU Columbus scored one run in the first for the early lead. Rio Grande answered with one run in the secound, and tacked on two more on the third to lead 3-1.
Chism tripled in the bottom of the inning, scoring Shelton.
Justice Cash followed with an RBI single to tie the game at 3. Rio Grande rallied for five runs inn the top of the fourth to retake the lead 8-3. The Crimson Pride kept battling back as
Lily Culp homered in the fourth. Shelton homered (for the second time on the day) leading off the fifth, closing the gap to 8-5.
Trailing 8-5 in the last inning, Shelton came through again. After Baldner hit a leadoff double, Shelton cranked her third bomb of the day to cut the lead to 8-7. The rally died there as Rio Grande was able to hang on for an 8-7 win and a split of the doubleheader.
Game notes:
Mallory Shelton 6-9 5R 6RBI 3 HR
Cierra Cramer 4-9 3R 2B
Linnea Baldner 4-8 2B
Emma Chism 2-6 3R 4RBI 2B 3B
Coach Tommi Stowers: "We had two good team wins this weekend against two top conference opponents.
Mallory Shelton was huge for us with a walkoff hit and three home runs today. With
Emma Chism hitting behind Mallory they had to give her something good to hit. Freshman
Cierra Cramer was a tough out all weekend for us. Freshmen pitchers
Chloe Linn and
Destiny Forler gave us a great effort in the cicle, showing they will have a huge impact throught our conference season."
Next on the schedule: River States Conference play continues Friday as the Crimson Pride travel to Portsmouth, Ohio for a doubleheader at Shawnee State. They return home to host Brescia University at CERA Sports Park on Saturday, March 14 with the first game beginning at 12:00
