April 27, 2002
Box Score
ATHENS, Ohio - The Miami softball team's hopes of making the Mid-American Conference Tournament took a major hit Saturday afternoon as it dropped both ends of a doubleheader to Ohio, 4-3 and 5-0. Kristen Scrima's RBI single in the bottom of the eighth was the game-winner in the first game while Val Wood shut out the RedHawks through 6.2 innings in the second.
Miami is 7-12 in the MAC (16-33 overall), four games behind Ohio (22-20, 11-8) for second place in the East Division. As it stands now, the last team to qualify for the tourney would be Western Michigan, which is 9-7. The first team on the outside looking in is Marshall, at 10-11, then Eastern Michigan, at 7-12, and then Miami. The Eagles win the tie-breaker with the RedHawks because they took two out of three from them earlier this year.
With the first game knotted 3-3 in the bottom of the eighth, Erin Chapman drew a one-out walk from freshman starter Jackie Poggendorf (Phoenix, Ariz./Shadow Mountain), then stole second. After a pop out, Kiersten Scrima grounded a single through the left side. The throw by sophomore left fielder Maggie Cousins (Westerville, Ohio/Westerville South) beat Chapman to the plate, but she knocked the ball out of the glove of senior catcher Nicki Pelfrey (Fremont, Ohio/Fremont Ross), giving the Bobcats the dramatic victory.
Miami opened the scoring in the top of the third. With two outs, sophomore Jessica Zogaib (Temperance, Mich./Bedford) and junior Angie Gerber (La Salle, Mich./Mason) singled and Pelfrey walked to load the bases.
The next batter, Poggendorf, worked the count full and, after fouling off a number of pitches, lined a ball to left that glanced off Anne Slusser's glove, clearing the bases and giving the RedHawks a 3-0 lead.
Ohio got all of those runs back in the bottom of the inning on Chapman's third home run of the season, a run-scoring single by starting pitcher Heather Hagen and Tiffany Bolton's RBI double.
Hagen walked six batters, but only one of them came around to score. Miami left eight runners on base to Ohio's two.
For the first time in 27 appearances, Poggendorf failed to record a strikeout, although she did pitch in her 41st game this season, establishing a new school record. The loss drops her record drops to 14-18.
The Bobcats kept things rolling in the next game against a visibly demoralized RedHawk team, pushing across their first run in the second inning when Bolton led off with a triple and scored on an infield error.
They tacked on four more in the fourth on RBI singles by Chapman and Kelli Bankert, Sarah Melvin's steal of home and a RedHawk throwing error.
A two-out single by sophomore Jacque Molinaro (Follinsbee, W.Va./Brooke) in the bottom of the seventh accounted for Miami's only run.
The two teams are scheduled to play a single game Sunday, April 28 at 1 p.m.
