On Sunday, February 28th, Greenville University Lady Panthers traveled to Decatur, Illinois to Millikin University where they would take on the DePauw Tigers in a neutral site doubleheader. The Lady Panthers fell 14-0 in the first contest in five innings and 13-5 in five innings in the second game of the doubleheader.
In the first game of the doubleheader, the Lady Panthers were only able to hold DePauw scoreless one time in five innings and were only able to garner three hits, one of which was a double by junior outfielder Katie Myers. The other two hits belonged to sophomore infielder Desirae Yost and senior second baseman Olivia Shipman.
Senior pitcher Maegan Stone started the game in the circle for the Panthers. In three innings of work, Stone gave up five runs, but only two of which were earned runs. After Stone’s three innings of work, senior pitcher Kendall Farr took the circle for the Panthers. Farr gave up nine runs, five of which were earned. Unfortunately for Stone, she was the one who took the loss in the first game of the season. The Panthers’ scoreline ended with zero runs, three hits, and four errors. As the Panthers headed into game two, they looked to clean up the defense and hopefully have more of an impact on the offensive side of the ball as well.
Game two began with DePauw getting off to a fast start by scoring six runs in the first inning off of starting pitcher Alison Klaus. Klaus gave up 11 earned runs in her three innings pitched. Stone then pitched the last two innings of the contest, allowing two earned runs. The Panthers did play an error-free ball game, but the Tigers offensive explosion in game two just could not be stopped. Even though the Panthers were able to play a very clean game in the field, the Tigers still managed 15 hits in five innings, and once again, only one zero was put up on the board.
The game started with a six-spot being put up by DePauw, but the Panthers had a positive response when they were able to answer with two runs of their own on a triple by Yost to score a run and then an RBI single by senior utility player Hannah Hoffman. The Panthers then scored three in the third inning but had zeros put up in the other three innings of the contest. The Panthers had a much more positive offensive output in game two. Five of the Panthers’ six hits were for extra bases, and the only single still scored a run. After asking Klaus how the opening weekend went, she responded by saying, “It was nice to finally be able to play softball again. I know it is not how we wanted it to go, but now we know what we need to work on. It is all uphill from here.”
Stay tuned for more softball updates from the Papyrus as we stay locked in on the Lady Panthers for the 2021 season.
Media by Parker Lutz.
