PLANT CITY, Fla. – The Indiana Tech softball team opened its 2017 season on Friday at the SpringBreakSoftball.com NAIA Preview at Plant City Stadium with a pair of losses as they fell to Keiser, 7-2, and lost in five innings to Warner, 17-7.
The Warriors would fall behind 4-0 after three innings in their opener against the Seahawks, but would cut the deficit in half in the top of the fourth as
Alyssa Ringswald and
Lindsey Delana scored after a fielding error on Keiser's shortstop off the bat of
Lauren Ohnesorge.
The Seahawks would respond quickly however, as they pushed across three runs across the plate in the bottom of the inning off back-to-back singles. Keiser would then shut down the Warriors bats through the last three innings, with just one base runner getting into scoring position for Tech and the Orange and Black going down in order in the sixth and seventh.
Maggie McCrory took the loss after going 3.2 innings, allowing seven runs, all earned, on six hits and four walks while striking out three.
Ali LeNoue went 2-4 with a stolen base while Delana also recorded a stolen base.
In the nightcap, Tech would use four hits and two stolen bases and took advantage of an error to jump out to a 3-0 lead over the Royals.
Alexis Vargo,
Hannah Foltz and Delana would provide the offense as the trio all recorded RBI's in the inning.
Warner would answer back with a flurry of offense in the second and third though, scoring seven runs in the second to chase starter
Tori Simper and tacking on another three runs in the third to take a 10-4 lead.
Tech would start to claw back with a homer from Vargo in the third while
Madison Ohnesorge knocked in Ringswald in the fourth inning to make it a 10-5 game. The Warriors would take advantage of Royals error later in the fourth to score two more runs and cutting the deficit to 10-7, but fourth straight hits, including three consecutive doubles, would put Warner up 14-7 in the bottom of the inning before a three-run homer in the fifth made it 17-7 and gave the Warriors an 0-2 start to the season.
Tech (0-2) continues play at the SpringBreakSoftball.com NAIA Preview on Saturday with another split doubleheader at Plant City Stadium. First up is No. 3-ranked Southeastern at 12 p.m. while the team ends the day against Ave Maria at 5 p.m.
