Softball Drops A Pair At Kent State

Saturday, May 1

Kent, Ohio

1 p.m.

Central Michigan University

11-23, 9-15

Kent State

18-21, 14-11

Central Michigan

Kent State

Photo by: Keara Chaperon '22

5/1/2021 7:28:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

KENT, Ohio – The Central Michigan softball team dropped a Mid-American Conference doubleheader to Kent State, 6-4 and 6-1, on Saturday at the Golden Flashes' Diamond at Dix.

Six of the Golden Flashes' 12 runs in the doubleheader were unearned. CMU committed one error in the opener and two in the nightcap.

CMU is 11-24, 9-16 MAC. The teams close the series with a game on Sunday (noon).

Game 1
Kaitlyn Miller had a two-run triple and Emily Lippe hit a two-run homer as Kent State scored five runs, four of them unearned, in the fifth inning to break a 1-1 tie.

Cloe Mallory (2-4) took the loss. She allowed four runs on six hits over 4 1/3 innings. Grace Lehto went the final 1 2/3 innings in the circle for CMU.

"We love the way they battled," CMU coach McCall Salmon said of her pitchers. "Cloe faced 21 batters and she threw only 56 pitches so that just kind of shows how efficient she was. She was keeping them off balance. She gave up a couple of earned runs, but she kept us in the game and gave us an opportunity to win."

Shannon Stein hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning and Morgan Gardner had two hits to lead CMU at the plate. She also had a hit in the second game and finished the day 3-for-6.

It was Stein's team-leading sixth home run of the season.

"Offensively we bounced back after their five-run inning and scored those three runs, but we can't wait until the end of a game to start making adjustments and start hitting the ball hard," Salmon said. "Morgan Gardner a great day at the plate. Very consistent for us offensively."

Game 2
The Golden Flashes seized a 4-0 lead through two innings. All four runs were unearned as CMU committed one error in each inning.

Lehto started and took the loss. She allowed five runs on six hits, walked three and struck out four over five innings. Faith Howe worked the final inning in relief.

The Chippewas had four hits including a second-inning home run by Caitlyn Britton. It was Britton's third homer of the season; all three have come in her last eight games.

"Caitlyn Britton in the second game, she hit a ball that I don't think has landed yet," Salmon said. "She hit it over the scoreboard; a no-doubter."

Kent State committed just one error on the day, and that came in the opener.

"One thing you don't see in the box score is that we hit the ball hard and they made a couple of really nice defensive plays," Salmon said. "It shows that we had four hits in that second game, but they had to make some plays and they came up big on that end. From a defensive standpoint they were perfect, and we unfortunately made some key mistakes in key situations.

"From a pitching perspective, everything we saw today we're going to see (on Sunday) and we know what we have to do in order to be successful. We have to look to attack early in the count and just keep hitting the ball hard and make them make plays."