TIGERS PICK UP FIRST WIN WITH SPLIT AT MISSOURI BAPTIST

ST. LOUIS, Mo. –  The Olivet Nazarene University softball team picked up its first win of the 2024 campaign when they split a doubleheader at Missouri Baptist Friday afternoon at the Spartan Softball Field.

The win came in the series opener, with Tigers hammering out 13 runs to end things early in the sixth inning. The win marked first-year head coach Lauren Herlihy's first career win as a collegiate head coach. The Spartans came back to take the second game 10-2.

Zoe Oshiro set the tone early in the first game, sending out a 2-RBI single to plate a pair of runs in the top of the first inning. ONU tacked on four more runs in the third inning, with Kahiwa Ili, Gwen Bender, and Allie Timm all lifting RBI singles to give the Tigers a commanding 6-0 lead.

ONU scored a run in both the fourth and fifth innings off the bats of Mallory O'Connor and Timm, respectively. MBU (5-5) finally got on the board with a run in the fifth inning, but the Tigers retaliated with a crooked number in the following frame. Carissa Bombardiere capped the five-run sixth inning with a bases-clearing 3-RBI triple to end the game early.

Six different Tigers tallied an RBI in the big win. Stephanie Hause, Oshiro, and Bender each had three of the team's 13 hits.

In addition to her big day at the plate, Timm also got it done on the mound. The Channahon, Ill., pitched a complete game, only allowing one earned run on seven hits. She struck out a pair of Spartans on the way to the win.

ONU was only able to scratch out two runs in the second game. That came after Missouri Baptist pushed across 10 runs in the first four innings.

Trailing 10-0, the Tigers appeared poised for a big inning in the fifth with the bases loaded and nobody out. O'Connor led off with a walk, Bender singled through the left side, and Ili singled up the middle to chalk the bases. Avery Osborn roped a single to plate O'Connor and Alyssa McCord plated a run with a sac fly, but that was all ONU could get across in what proved to be the final innings.

ONU, now 1-7 overall, will return to the diamond in Arizona for the Tucson Invitational. The 10-game trip will begin against Simpson (Calif.) at 11 a.m. CST at Lincoln Park in Tucson, Ariz.

--ONU—

*Contact: Evan Wild, Sports Information Director, ewwild@olivet.edu