On March 17, the 7 ranked Saint Xavier softball team played their first conference double header of the season against Trinity Christian College.
The Cougars would dominate this double header playing great offense and getting great pitching as well.
The Trolls and the Cougars were locked in a pitchers duel for the first two innings of the game.
That changed in the top of the third inning where the Cougars would score three runs off of five hits to take a 3-0 lead in the top of the third.
The Cougars runs came from three RBI singles from second baseman Savannah Kinsella, third baseman Sarah Saunders, and center fielder Shannon Lauret.
Trinity Christian and Saint Xavier would go back to playing in a pitchers duel until the top of the sixth inning where the Cougars would score another run off of a RBI triple from shortstop Rebecca Ferguson to extend their lead to 4-0.
The Cougars would put the finishing touch on the first game of this double header by scoring another run in the top of the seventh off of Lauret’s second RBI single of the game to give the Cougars a 5-0 win.
The star of the first game was starting pitcher Nicole Nonnemacher. Nonnemacher pitched a complete game shutout while giving only one hit, walking none, and striking out 18 Trolls in the game. The Cougars’ offense did its part to help Nonnemacher.
The team recorded 11 hits in 32 at bats for a team batting average of .343. The team also was very disciplined at the plate, striking out only one time in the entire game.
Game two started out very well for Saint Xavier, coming out in the top of the first to score a run off of an RBI single from first baseman Amanda Hainlen to give the Cougars an early 1-0 lead. The Cougars and the Trolls would go scoreless for the next couple of innings.
In the top of the third inning, the Cougars would pick up their scoring again, collecting two run runs off of three hits to give the Cougars a 3-0 lead over their conference foe. The two runs would come from a sac fly by Saunders and an RBI single by Lauret.
In the top of the fourth, the Cougars’ offense exploded in an inning that saw the Cougars bat around and score nine runs off of 10 hits and pushed their lead to 12-0.
From there, the Cougars would continue to hold the Trolls scoreless, resulting in a slaughter rule win for Saint Xavier by the score of 12-0 in the fifth inning.
Starting pitcher Callie Brown pitched a complete game shutout for the Cougars, recording seven hits and one strikeout.
The Cougars’ offense stole the show in the second game, recording 17 hits in 31 at bats for an incredible team batting average of .548. Kinsella had a very good game, going 3-4 from the plate with two RBIs and scoring a run.
Sears also had a very good game, going 2-4 with two RBIs and scoring two runs. Lauret led the team in RBIs in this game, recording three of them.
The sweep pushed the Cougars record to 15-2-1 and gave them a conference record of 2-0-0.
John Romando
Senior Sports Editor
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