Statesmen Swept by St. Ambrose, Out of First Place
William Penn Women’s Athletics
Oskaloosa–Success at the plate was few and far between for the William Penn softball team as it was swept by St. Ambrose in a Midwest Collegiate Conference doubleheader Thursday.
The Statesmen (30-16, 12-6 MCC), who lost by scores of 1-0 and 3-2, have fallen into a tie for second place in the league with Grand View (10-5). Mount Mercy (11-4) is now atop the standings, while the Queen Bees improved to 7-5 in the MCC (30-13 overall).
The visitors drew back-to-back walks against Jennifer Whitehead (Jr., Oskaloosa, Iowa, Biology) to start the opener. They eventually got on the board later in the inning with the game’s only run.
Whitehead struck out six (three walks) in a five-hitter, but unfortunately did not receive any run support from her offense to fall to 13-9.
The navy and gold were only able to put two runners on base in the first inning and one more in the third. William Penn was outhit 5-2 with Jessica Christensen (Fr., Marysville, Wash., Sociology) recording both base knocks.
The Statesmen have struggled in past opening games, but have tended to turn it around for the nightcap. Thursday did not follow that trend, however, as the hosts were unable to score until very late.
William Penn loaded the bases in the fourth on three SAU errors, but no one came around to score. The team finally found its groove in the seventh and last inning.
Sollita Lucero (Sr., Denver, Colo., Human Services/Sociology) led off with a double into the right-center gap and then Sonia Ray (Jr., San Diego, Calif., Physical Education) matched her with another two-bagger, hers to left center to plate Lucero with WPU’s first run. Ray scored two outs later on a throwing error by the Queen Bees to make it 3-2.
Unfortunately, William Penn could not tie the contest and is now on the outside looking in for the MCC regular season crown.
The Statesmen lost the hits battle 10-4. Carly Land (Sr., Mission Viejo, Calif., Education) tallied five strikeouts against one walk and only permitted two earned runs. She is now 17-7 this year.
