Softball Splits At Kent State; Series Concludes On Wednesday

Tuesday, April 5

Kent, Ohio

1 p.m.

Central Michigan University

14-13, 5-1

Kent State

9-18, 1-8

Central Michigan

Kent State

Photo by: Tom Knapp

Softball Splits At Kent State; Series Concludes On Wednesday

4/5/2022 6:50:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

KENT, Ohio – Grace Lehto struck out eight and Central Michigan tied a season high with three home runs on Tuesday in topping Kent State, 4-0, in game one of a Mid-American Conference softball doubleheader at the Golden Flashes' Diamond at Dix.

Kent State broke a 1-1 tie with a sixth-inning homer in winning the nightcap, 2-1. The Chippewas are 14-14, 5-2 MAC. Kent State is 10-18, 2-8.

The teams play the rubber match of the three-game series on Wednesday (12 p.m.).

Shannon Stein, Skylar Coberley and Emily Bracamonte each homered in the opener to back Lehto (7-7), a sophomore right-hander who allowed six hits in going the distance.

A Maddie Springer RBI single in the second inning put the Chippewas up, 1-0. Coberley homered in the fourth, Bracamonte went deep in the fifth, and Stein hit her team-leading ninth round-tripper of the season in the seventh.

It was the second homer of the season for both Coberley and Bracamonte. It marked the third time this season CMU has hit three homers in a game, and it was the Chippewas' seventh multi-homer game of the year. The Chippewas had three against Bellarmine on Feb. 19, and also had three at Akron on March 20.

CMU has hit 27 home runs through 28 games this season. A year ago, the Chippewas hit 31 in 48 games and had 15 through 28 games. They had six multi-homer games a year ago.

"I think offensively when we maintain and stick to our approach, good things are going to happen," CMU coach McCall Salmon said. "It gives our offense more of a threat. I think at any point, anyone can step in the box and put the ball over the fence.

"The other standpoint is the consistency. We left more runners on base today than I would have liked. If we push one or two more across, we've got two wins on the day."

Lehto worked out of two jams, the first in the first inning when the Golden Flashes had a runner at third with two out, and the second in the sixth when they put runners on the corners with two out. Lehto got a strikeout to end the first and a fly out to end the sixth.

It was Lehto's second shutout of the season.

"I thought it was a great performance for her on the mound," Salmon said. "Those first couple of innings they got the lead-off hitter on and she stayed composed and she executed her pitches that we needed and the defense was strong behind her today. All around I thought she threw a great game."

CMU pitcher Kaitlyn Bean (4-6) was nearly as good in the nightcap as she struck out six and surrendered six hits. Neither Lehto nor Bean issued a walk and the Chippewas did not commit an error in either game.

"We couldn't have asked for much more from them on the mound today," Salmon said. "As we get into conference play, that's what we need. We need them to go out and give us an opportunity to win every game and they did that for us today. Unfortunately, in game two we weren't able to give the run support to Bean as we did in game one."

Kent State took a 1-0 lead in the first inning of game two and the Chippewas tied it with a run in the second. Caitlyn Britton led off with a single, went to second on a Bracamonte single, and took third on a groundout. Britton scored on a passed ball.

Madyson Cole homered with one out in the sixth to put the Golden Flashes ahead for good.

Bracamonte singled and doubled and Stein doubled to lead CMU's six-hit attack.

"We need to make a couple of (offensive) adjustments tomorrow and execute better in situations and make (Kent State) make plays," said Salmon, whose team struck out 20 times and left 13 runners on base in the twinbill. "We didn't make them make a lot of plays. We'll be better tomorrow."