Back-to-back doubles by Stewart and Guest lead Softball to 1-0 victory over Heidelberg in home opener
By Tim Glon
ADA — Seniors Gabby Stewart (Union, Ky./St. Henry) and Brady Guest (Convoy/Crestview) led off the bottom of the sixth inning with back-to-back doubles to lift the Ohio Northern softball team to a 1-0 victory over Heidelberg in the home opener on Monday at the ONU Softball Field.
Both the Polar Bears and the Student Princes are now 1-1-1 on the season after splitting the three games in the series.
The games will not count toward the Ohio Athletic Conference regular season standings as ONU and HU will play another 4-game set in the 36-game quadruple round-robin schedule later this year.
With the score knotted at 0-0, Stewart led off the bottom of the sixth with a double off the right center field fence.
Guest the doubled down the right field line to score junior pinch runner Amanda Hish (Gainesville, Va./Patriot) to put ONU ahead 1-0.
Sophomore Allie Bican (Solon), freshman MarcQue Harris (Fremont/Old Fort) and junior Stacey Walters (Sunbury/Big Walnut) combined for the shutout, scattering seven hits and striking out six as a group.
Walters threw the final two innings, allowing only two hits, to earn the win and improve to 1-0 on the season.
Stewart went 2-for-3 with two doubles and sophomore Sydney Motylinski (Ida, Mich.) was 2-for-3 with a double for ONU.
The Polar Bears will return to action with a 4-game set against Capital to open OAC play this weekend. The two teams will play a double header at Capital on Saturday and a twin-bill at ONU on Sunday.
