Softball blanks Elizabethtown 8-0, downs Lebanon Valley 11-3 on Day 3 of spring trip

Katie Salay

By Tim Glon

| Elizabethtown Box | Lebanon Valley Box |

CLERMONT, Fla. -- The Ohio Northern softball team blanked Elizabethtown (Pa.) 8-0 and defeated previously unbeaten Lebanon Valley (Pa.) 11-3 Thursday at the National Training Center softball complex.

The Polar Bears improve to 6-0, while Elizabethtown falls to 2-5 and Lebanon Valley drops to 4-1.

Against Elizabethtown, Courtney Cash improved to 3-0 on the mound, allowing just two hits in five innings of work. The game was called in the fifth inning due to the NCAA's 8-run rule.

Northern got three runs in the second and five runs in the third to account for all of the game's scoring.

Kim Blewett had an RBI double, Katie Salay followed with an RBI triple and Cash had a two-out, run-scoring  single in the 3-run second.

In the third, Tina Mangola and Saley each had RBI doubles and JackieMangola had a 2-run double as Northern sent 11 batters to the plate in the inning.

Salay was 3 for 3 with her two RBIs for ONU.

Against Lebanon Valley, Cassie Gaye was 3 for 4 and Jackie Mangola, Kim Blewett and Salay each went 3 for 5 to lead ONU's 19-hit attack.

Northern scored in the top of the second frame to tie the score at 1-1 when Jackie Mangola drilled a double to left center and later scored on a sharp single to left by Cassie Gaye.

Northern then scored three times in the top of the third to take a 4-1 lead.

Salay and Jackie Mangola each had RBI singles and Gaye drilled an RBI double to account for the scoring in the frame.

A little two-out rally plated another run in the top of the fourth to extend ONU's lead to 5-1. With two out, Danielle Goubeaux was hit by a pitch, Kim Blewett singled to center and Salay banged a double to left center to plate Goubeaux.

Goubeaux started another two-out rally in the sixth, when she walked, advanced two bases on a pair of wild pitches and scored on a single through the left side by Blewett to make it 6-1 Polar Bears.

Northern added five runs in the seventh to go up 11-2 when Jackie Mangola led off with a double and scored on a single by Gaye. Mandi Fought then blloped a single to right and Decima doubled down the left field line to score Tabatha Pike, who pinch-ran for Gaye.

One out later, Goubeaux drilled a double to right center to score Fought and Decima and Blewett followed with a double of her own to score Goubeaux.

Staphanie Inkrott (1-0) threw five-plus innings of relief to earn the win.

Ohio Northern will return to action on Friday with games against Johnson & Wales (RI) at 1:30 pm, and Northland (Wis.) at 3:30 pm