Marshalltown, IA—Freshman Paige Taylor (Coquitlam, British Columbia/Terry Fox) earned a pair of wins in the circle and the Marshalltown Community College Softball offense carried the team to a pair of run-rule wins against Ellsworth Community College on Tuesday afternoon. The Tigers won game one 8-0 and finished the sweep with a 13-5 win, both in six innings.
Taylor allowed just one hit in six innings to pick up the shutout in the opener. The freshman tossed two innings of relief in game two as the Tigers pulled away down the stretch to improve to 13-4 on the year and have now won four in a row.
Sarah Ghee (Carlisle, IA/Carlisle) opened up the scoring in game one for the Tigers, scoring Courtney Fudge (Pleasant Hill, IA/Des Moines East) on an RBI-single. Taylor Anderson (San Antonio, TX/Churchil) delivered a sacrifice fly to score Samuari Jones (Louisville, KY/Seneca) for the early 2-0 lead. Josie Carpenter's (Wapello, IA/Wapello) doubled to score Lexie Valentine (Des Moines, IA/Saydel) and scored on a triple from Fudge in the second.
Taylor allowed a hit to the second batter of the game, but baffled the Panthers the remainder of the way. The freshman struck out four batters to pick up her fifth win of the season.
Ghee, Anderson, Fudge, and Taylor each had two hits in the game while Ghee and Taylor collected a pair of RBI each. Fudge scored three of the Tigers' eight runs in the game.
The Tigers opened game two with four runs in the first inning thanks to a two-run double from Tess Cheetham (Oceanside, CA/Oceanside). Valentine added a run-scoring double of her own to put MCC on top early on.
Ellsworth answered with four runs of their own in the third, but Cheetham sparked the offense once again with an RBI-single to score Ghee. The Panthers battled back in the top of the fourth, adding another run to tie the game at five.
Taylor entered the game in the fifth in the circle and limited the Panthers in both the fifth and sixth innings as the MCC offense came to life in the bottom half of the sixth. Jones led off the frame with a double to right field and came around to score on an error. Anderson drew a bases loaded walk and Raini Hilmer (Dysart, IA/Union) sent a two-run single to center field. Carpenter sent a shot to the left center fence for a two-run double, ending the game on the eight-run mercy rule.
Hilmer, Cheetham, Valentine, and Jones all had multi-hit games for the Tigers in the nightcap victory while Cheetham drove in three runs. Ghee scored three times in the win for MCC.
The Tigers open Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) play with a doubleheader at home against Iowa Western Community College on Friday afternoon. First pitch is set for 3:00 PM.
