Sunday’s battle of the top two offenses in the ODAC had two wildly different outcomes. When the dust settled, EMU’s softball women had drawn a split at Guilford, completing a 3-1 weekend road trip.
Following Saturday’s sweep of Emory & Henry and the split with the Quakers, Eastern Mennonite is 18-8 overall and 5-3 in the ODAC. The women head to Bridgewater College on Wednesday, with the doubleheader starting at 3:00pm.
The Royals still lead the conference with a .369 team batting average while scoring 7.3 runs per game. Guilford is second with a .347 batting clip.
EMU 16, Guilford 2 – 6 innings
Neither team scored in the first inning of the opener, but the Royals slowly picked up steam after that. Carli Hill (Staunton, Va./Fort Defiance) had a two-run homer as EMU took a 5-2 lead into the fifth.
The women had four hits in each of the fifth and sixth frames, but had more runs than hits scoring five and seven runs, respectively. Sydney Reath (Chambersburg, Pa./Mercersburg Academy) had a three-run blast in the fifth as the offensive explosion triggered the mercy rule.
Shortstop Danyele Smith (Broadway, Va./Broadway) was in the middle of a lot of the action, finishing 1-2 with two walks. She scored four runs and batted in three others. Reath laid down a pair of sacrifices to go with her three-run longball. Hill finished 3-4 with three RBIs and two runs.
Lauren Seale (Madison, Va./Madison County) went the distance from the circle, scattering six hits while striking out five. She improves to 5-2.
Guilford 4, EMU 3
The offenses did not catch fire in the second, although it looked like they might. Reath and Angelia Miller (Bridgewater, Va./Turner Ashby) each had RBI singles in the top of the first, but Guilford earned four straight hits to plate three runs in the bottom of the first for their first lead.
Pitching then dominated the rest of the game. The deficit stayed at 3-2 until Hill ripped a solo shot to left in the fifth, making it 3-3. The Royals had a runner on in the top of the seventh, but a line drive near first turned into an inning-ending double play.
The Quakers then started the bottom of the inning with back-to-back singles. A fly ball out moved the runners to second and third, and an infield single allowed Guilford to score the game-winning run in walk-off fashion.
EMU was limited to just five hits in game two.
Pitcher Janna Williams (Kenbridge, Va./Kenston Forest) was tagged for three runs while getting just one out in the first. Reath worked the final 6.0 frames, but the lone run she gave up handed her the loss.