Chippewas Break Out At The Plate In Opener At Bowling Green

Saturday, March 20

Bowling Green, Ohio

1 p.m.

Central Michigan University

3-8, 0

Bowling Green

9-8, 0

Central Michigan

Bowling Green

Morgan Gardner hit a three-run homer in helping the Chippewas to a 9-5 win over Bowling Green on Saturday.

Photo by: Tom Knapp

3/20/2021 9:31:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Chippewas and Falcons split MAC twinbill; close league-opening series on Sunday

By: Julia Bice, CMUChippewas.com

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – Emily Bracamonte and Morgan Gardner each homered and Cloe Mallory went five strong innings in the circle on Saturday as the Central Michigan softball team topped Bowling Green, 9-5, in the opener of a Mid-American Conference doubleheader at the Falcons' Meserve Field.

The Falcons took the nightcap, 1-0, to split the twinbill.

The Chippewas are 3-9, 1-2 MAC; Bowling Green is 10-8, 2-1. The teams are scheduled to play the final game of their four-game series on Sunday (noon).

Game 1
Mallory (1-3) surrendered five runs (two earned) on seven hits while striking out eight over five innings. Senior Faith Howe shut out the Falcons over the final two frames, surrendering three hits while striking out four.

Neither Chippewa pitcher issued a walk.

"Cloe did a great job of hitting her spots today," CMU coach McCall Salmon said. "We talked about as a whole pitching staff minimizing the freebies."

Bracamonte hit a two-run homer in the first inning and Gardner smacked a three-run shot in the third to put the Chippewas ahead, 5-4. It was the first round-tripper of the year for both.

The Chippewas added a run in the fourth on a Michaleigh Vallimont RBI groundout; another in the sixth on a Gardner RBI single; and scratched out two more in the seventh when Shannon Stein scampered home on an error and Abbey Tolmie's groundout plated Abigail Niehaus.

CMU finished with a season-high 12 hits, two each by Tolmie, Bracamonte and Niehaus.

"We went up to the plate today and each hitter had a plan," Salmon said. "We started attacking and we were able to execute the game plans and finally got our offense going."

Game 2
Sarah Gonzalez led off the third inning with a home run to account for the lone run in the nightcap.

Senior Kaitlyn Bean (0-5) allowed six hits, struck out seven, and walked two in taking the loss.

"That game is a difference of one pitch," Salmon said. "It was a solo home run, and it's that simple. We had a couple of innings with runners in scoring position and we just stranded them. Some of the things we were doing in the first game, we just didn't do in the second one."

The Chippewas finished with two hits, a double by Gardner and a single by Shaidan Knapp.