Clermont, FL—The Marshalltown Community College Softball team opened up play at THE Spring Games on Friday, winning two out of three games at Legends Way Ballfields. The Tigers improve to 4-1 on the year.
MCC opened the day with an early morning win over Glen Oaks Community College, needing just five innings to win 9-0. The Tigers then fell to Madison College 6-5 in eight innings before defeating Walsh University JV 5-3 in eight innings to close out the day.
The Tigers rolled to their third-straight run-rule victory to open the season with a shutout against Glen Oaks. Courtney Fudge (Pleasant Hill, IA/Des Moines East) went 3-3 in the win, scoring twice and driving in two more. Sophomore Taylor Anderson (San Antonio, TX/Churchill) drilled a three-run home run and Tess Cheetham (Oceanside, CA/Oceanside) added a RBI-triple. Jordan Carter (Sigourney, IA/Sigourney) struck out five batters in the shutout to earn her first-career win in the circle.
Game two saw the Tigers score single runs in third, fourth, and fifth innings for a 3-0 lead. The WolfPack responded with five runs in the bottom half of the fifth inning. Trailing by two in the top of the seventh, Cheetham delivered a sacrifice fly to score Anderson and a RBI-double from Paige Taylor (Coquitlam, British Columbia/Terry Fox) tied the game at five. The WolfPack held off the Tigers in the top of the eighth before scoring in the bottom half of the frame to steal the win.
Taylor struck out seven batters in seven innings for the Tigers. Raini Hilmer (Dysart, IA/Union) went 3-4 at the plate with two runs scored while Sarah Ghee (Carlisle, IA/Carlisle) added a pair of hits.
In the nightcap, MCC jumped out to a 2-0 lead over Walsh JV after Kari Smith (Marshalltown, IA/Marshalltown) and Lauren Wolfe (Miles City, MT/Custer County) scored runs. The Cavaliers tied the game at two in the third and neither side plated a run over the next four innings, forcing another extra-inning contest for MCC.
The Tiger offense woke up in the top of the eighth as Rieley Rodman (Ankeny, IA/Grand View Christian), Wolfe, and Smith all collected RBI-singles to put MCC ahead. The only run the Cavaliers scored off of Carter, the Tigers' starting pitcher, in the eighth was due to the International Tiebreaker rule as MCC won its second game of the day.
Fudge and Smith both recorded three hits in the finale while Wolfe, Anderson, and Rodman each registered two knocks in the win.
The Tigers return to action tomorrow morning in Clermont against Spoon River College at 10:00 AM (CDT) and Triton College at 12:00 PM (CDT).
