Freshman Ashley Lenser pitches another shutout as Softball sweeps doubleheader with Baldwin Wallace
By Wes Mayberry
ADA — Freshman Ashley Lenser (Brookville) continued to shine in the pitching circle as the Ohio Northern softball team swept both games of a doubleheader with Baldwin Wallace on Sunday at the ONU Softball Field.
The Polar Bears (16-8 overall, 12-2 OAC) won 2-0 in Game 1 and earned an 8-5 victory in Game 2 to run their winning streak to six games.
The losses drop Baldwin Wallace to 12-20 overall and 7-9 in the OAC.
Lenser needed just 87 pitches to get through the first game, as she allowed only two hits while striking out seven and walking none to improve to 8-2 on the season.
The freshman has won each of her last seven starts, including shutouts in four of her last five outings.
Lenser outdueled Baldwin Wallace pitcher Nikki Camarati, who entered Sunday ranked third in the nation in strikeouts with 193 on the season. Camarati allowed seven hits and one walk while striking out six.
Despite getting seven hits off of Camarati, the Polar Bears were unable to score until the bottom of the fifth inning when sophomore Kaylie Griffin (Grafton/Elyria Catholic) launched a solo home run over the fence in left field.
That's all the run support Lenser would need, but Northern added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth after a single from Lenser put runners on first and third with one out.
Senior Lauren Renner (Columbus/Hilliard Bradley), who led off the inning with a single and advanced to third on Lenser's single, scored on a wild pitch to put ONU up 2-0 en route to the victory.
The offense came alive for ONU in Game 2, as the Polar Bears tallied 12 hits in the victory.
Junior Sydney Motylinski (Ida, Mich.) had a team-high three hits and three RBIs, while Renner added one hit and two RBIs.
Seniors Abby Elliott (Loveland/Ursuline) and Rachel Hish (Gainesville, Va./Patriot) tallied two hits each.
Junior Allie Bican (Solon) tallied nine strikeouts and earned the win in the pitching circle to improve to 4-1 on the season.
After the Yellow Jackets took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, ONU responded with a three-run third inning courtesy of an RBI single from Griffin and a 2-RBI single from Motylinski.
The Polar Bears added three more runs in the bottom of the fifth highlighted by a 2-RBI single from Renner.
BWU plated a run on a sacrifice fly in the top of the sixth and had an opportunity to add to it after loading the bases with two outs. But Bican worked out of the jam, striking out Sara Frederickson to end the threat.
ONU came right back with two runs in the bottom of the frame via a steal of home by Elliott and an RBI single from Motylinski.
The Yellow Jackets capped the scoring with three runs in the top of the seventh.
The Polar Bears return to action on Monday for their third conference doubleheader in the span of three days as they host John Carroll beginning at 3 p.m.