Softball heating up

by Mallory Mulvihill
Sports Editor

The Monmouth College women’s softball team has started off their season just one game off .500 at 4-5. The women started their season over spring break in Fort Myers, FL and had their first home opener against MacMurray College on March 15 followed by another home game against Wartburg College on March 18.

The Scots came back from their spring break trip with a record of 2-4. The Scots played their first game of the season against Rochester Institute of Technology and came away with a season opening win 3-1. Junior Drew Robinson shined in this game as she went 2-3 and scored 2 of the 3 runs. The first run came in the first inning when Robinson singled followed by a double by freshman Amanda Boonstra, which scored the speedy Robinson from first. Boonstra finished the game 1-3 and one RBI. The Lady Scots scored again in the second when Jackie Hennefent singled, advanced to second on a wild pitch and then reached third on a groundout by Ashley Parer. She then scored on a sacrifice fly hit by Kristin Bickett to straightaway center. Robinson stepped up to the plate again in the third, singled, stole second, advanced to third on a groundout by Jessica Travis, and scored on a single by Emily Willems. The Scots held off Rochester for the rest of the game and came away with the victory.

The women played a tough Curry College team in the second game of the day. “I thought we played well against them. They won 33 games last year,” said Coach Kari Shimmin. The Scots lost the game 7-1. Robinson, Willems, and Jennifer Hass each recorded hits for the Scot. Monmouth was only down 1-0 until the sixth, which saw the women commit three errors.

The women won their next game against Emmanuel College 8-3 on March 8. Robinson again had a strong showing as she went 2-3 and scored twice. Parer went 2-2 with 2 RBIs and also scored twice. Monmouth scored six quick runs in the first and never looked back. Travis and Jessica Serritella both finished 2-4.

The Scots dropped their next two games to St. John Fisher 15-7 and Rockford College 9-1. The Scots stayed within reach of St. Johns and had the game to 6-5 on RBIs by Parer and Travis, but watched as St. Johns came back to hit back to back homer runs, and score nine times in the final two at bats. The women and Rockford went scoreless until the third inning when Rockford scored four unearned runs as the women committed two errors.

Robinson finished off the trip well, having a batting average of .471, an on base percentage of .526, eight runs and four stolen bases. As the leadoff hitter, Robinson is doing just what she needs to do, get on base and use her speed to put herself in scoring position. Parer hit two homeruns and had five RBIs. Boonstra did her job from the mound as she finished the break with a 2-1 record and 3.82 ERA. “We would have liked to go 3-3, but it was better than last year. We saw much improvement from last year in terms of skills. We are still a very young team,” said Shimmin.

In the first home game of the season, the Scots won both games against MacMurray College. The Highlanders lost a majority of their roster from last year, which beat the Scots in Jacksonville a year ago. The start of game one looked to be a repeat performance of last year, but the women rallied from a 5-1 deficit in the final inning of play. Willems led off the inning with a double. Boonstra came in as a pinch hitter and was struck by a pitch that advanced her to second. Anna Coutts grounded out to the pitcher, but scored Willems to make the score 5-2, and advanced pinch runner Katti Jablenski to third. Bickett came in to pinch hit and singled scoring Jablenski to make the score 5-3. Robinson came through in the clutch and hit a triple that scored a run to pull the Scots within one. Parer singled to score Robinson and make the game 5-5. Travis came up and singled again to adavance Parer to second. Hass then came up to bat with only one out recorded on the board, and reached on a fielder’s choice that threw out Parer, but advanced Travis to third. Hennefent then hit a liner to centerfield to score the sixth and final run to make the score 6-5.

The Scots offense took over again in the night cap as Travis blasted a three run homer over the fence in straight away center to break a 2-2 tie in the third. Travis finished the game 3-3 with four RBIs. Robinson and Parer continued their hot streaks both going 2-3. Robinson finished 4-6 on the night.

The Scots faced a tougher team in Wartburg on March 18. Wartburg came to town having won 11 games and only losing one. “They are just a different caliber team than what we have played,” said Shimmin. The Knights left Monmouth with an 18-0 victory. Wartburg is a team that is favored to win their conference this year and returned a large amount of their already talented roster from last year. “It’s good experience for us. It will prepare us to play conference games,” added Shimmin.

The Scots travel to Coe this weekend, March 25-26, to play Coe and Cornell on Saturday March 25, and UW-Stout and St. Mary’s on Sunday March 26.