Babson Park, Fla. - On a day when the Webber International University softball team held a Lupus awareness and fundraising game for teammate Morgan Hughart, they also earned a split with #22 ranked Auburn University Montgomery. The Lady Warriors (18-11) took game one 2-0 and lost a hard fought battle in game two, 8-7 in 10 innings.
The Warriors got on the board early as Ashley Clark led off the first game with a single, stole 2nd and 3rd, and eventually scored on a passed ball to put Webber up 1-0. The Warriors and Senators would then trade scoreless innings until the 4th when Junior Shauna Ward blasted her 8th homerun of the year putting the Warriors up 2-0. AUM would go down in order over the last three innings of the contest as the Lady Warriors secured their 18th win of the season. Senior hurler Kristen LeFan was stellar on the mound for WIU. She allowed only one hit, a single, in the contest, and shut down an AUM team that came in averaging almost 5 runs and 8 hits per game. LeFan earned her 10th win of the season and struck out 10 Lady Senators in the game to raise her NAIA leading strikeout total to 166.
In the second game the Lady Senators came out swinging and put 3 quick runs on the board in top of the first. They would add three more runs in the 3rd to take a 6-0 lead early in the contest. But the Lady Warriors began chipping away at the AUM lead in the bottom half of the third as they plated two runs of their own. Jianna Hernandez began the scoring as she led off with a single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Ashley Clark, and scored on Shauna Ward's double.
On the very next at bat, Ward was driven in by Joy Fuller who ripped a hard single to left field bringing the score to 6-2. Senior pitcher Kristen Stewart shut down the AUM offense over the next 5 innings, allowing the Lady Warriors to stay within striking distance.
In the 6th inning, Junior Shauna Ward put a quick run up on the board with a towering opposite field homerun, her 9th on the year. In the 7th, down 6-3, the Lady Warriors saw the lead off hitter, Jianna Hernandez, reach first after being hit by a pitch. Ashley Clark followed with a single and both players advanced on a passed ball. Kristen LeFan then drove in Hernandez with a sharp single up the middle. Another passed ball would score Clark and allow LeFan to advance to second base.
Next up was Joy Fuller who singled and advanced LeFan to third. Erin Holland then drove a ball to deep center that was caught on the fence by the AUM center fielder to rob Holland of a walk off blast. Holland's drive did, however, score LeFan from third and tied the game at 6 all. The 8th inning tiebreaker saw AUM bunt their runner over to third base, however, Stewart got the next two batters to pop up to first and fly out to right to end the threat. In the bottom half of the 8th, the Warriors could not push their runner across as AUM's relief pitcher struck out two batters and got another to pop up to first.
In the 9th, AUM singled in their runner from 2nd, but Kristen LeFan, in relief for Stewart, struck out a batter and got the next two to fly out. The Lady Warriors answered in the bottom half of the 9th when Ashley Clark reached on an infield hit putting runners on the corners for Webber. LeFan followed with a hard hit ball that was mishandled by the AUM 2nd baseman, allowing Hernandez to score from 3rd. AUM would work out of the inning when Shauna Ward ripped a ground ball to 3rd that was fielded by the 3rd baseman for a double play.
In the decisive 10th, AUM used a sacrifice bunt to move their runner to 3rd and executed a squeeze bunt to plate a run. After a failed steal attempt and strikeout the Warriors got out of the 10th and came to the plate trying to keep the game alive. But it was not to be as the AUM pitcher got a pop up and two strikeouts to shut the door on a tough luck 8-7 loss for the Warriors.
Senior Kristen Stewart earned a no decision in the contest, but threw 6 innings of two hit ball to keep her team within striking distance. Webber also settled down on defense after a tough first 3 innings and fought their way back into the contest scoring 6 unanswered runs.
Shauna Ward led the way at the plate for the Warriors going 2 for 4 with a double, a homerun, 2 runs scored and 3 RBI's. Joy Fuller was 3 for 4 with an RBI and Ashley Clark went 2 for 4 with a run scored and a sac bunt. Sophomore Jianna Hernandez scored three runs in the contest for the Lady Warriors.
The WIU softball team will now head to Clermont to take on Indiana Tech on Thursday in a doubleheader. First pitch is scheduled for 1:30.
