Central Michigan University
Siena
Chippewas Win Third Straight
2/19/2017 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Lindsay Gerber, CMUChippewas.com
MADEIRA BEACH, Fla. - The Central Michigan softball team topped off the Madeira Beach invitational on Sunday, beating Siena, 7-0, for its third consecutive victory.
CMU ended the weekend event 4-1, improving to 4-6 on the season.
The Chippewas will return to Florida, this time to Clearwater, next week when they will play 12 games over nine days beginning on Friday, March 3 (2 p.m.) against Hartford.
Central Michigan opened the Madeira Beach Invitational on Friday with a 1-0 win over North Dakota and a 3-0 loss to Quinnipiac. On Saturday, CMU posted a 4-3 win over Robert Morris and an 11-0 shutout of UMass.
"The players bought in to suggestions about adjustments they could make at the plate," said CMU coach Margo Jonker, whose team hit .318 with 10 extra-base hits on the trip. "They did what we asked them to do and they settled into the game a little bit."
Pitcher Rachael Knapp (3-3) continued her dominance on Sunday, striking out 14 and allowing five hits in posting the shutout, her third straight. Knapp went 3-0 in Madiera Beach with 37 strikeouts against just four walks and 11 hits in 20 innings.
The Chippewa pitching staff, including Laura Vaccaro, Hanna Warren and Taylor Weaver, compiled a 1.27 earned run average in the five games in Madiera Beach.
"The pitching staff is really supportive of each other and that's amazing," Jonker said. "We need to keep our pitching staff together like they have been so far because we'll need different pitchers to step up throughout the year."
Knapp got stronger as the game progressed. She left the bases loaded with Saints in the first inning and stranded two in the third. She allowed just two hits after the first inning.
Maison Kalina singled and doubled and Sydney Heath had two hits to lead CMU at the plate. The Chippewas scored at least once run in five of their six turns at bat.
Losing pitcher Lauren Butts allowed six hits, walked five and struck out five over 5 1/3 innings.
Kalina finished the weekend 7-for-15 at the plate, while four Chippewas - Heath, Lacy Tolfree, Taylor Lewallen and Vieira -- who saw significant playing time hit .364 or better.
"We need a little bit of a break to give our bodies a break for a couple days and then work on some things we need to fine tune," Jonker said. "We'll just keep working how we've been working to keep getting better day by day."
