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AKRON, Ohio – The Miami University softball team held on for an important first victory to open up play at the Mid-American Conference Tournament. The third-seeded RedHawks defeated sixth seed Northern Illinois, 6-4, on Wednesday. Miami improves to 32-22 overall, while the Huskies fall to 28-24.
With the victory, the Red and White remain in the winner’s bracket of the double elimination tournament. Miami next faces second seed Ball State, a 10-2 winner over Akron on Wednesday, at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday at Firestone Stadium in Akron.
The RedHawks struck first in the bottom of the second inning. With two outs, senior third baseman Remy Edwards was on first base while junior outfielder Taylor Shuey was on second. Freshman catcher Rylee Whispel drew a walk. Senior shortstop Kylie McChesney hit a single to leftfield, allowing Shuey to score.
In the bottom of the third, senior outfielder Tiyona Marshall hit a triple to deep centerfield. Junior designated player Tanya Busby followed with a single up the middle that scored her and gave Miami a 2-0 lead.
The RedHawks broke the game open with four runs in the bottom of the fourth. Senior outfielder Bree Lipscomb led off with a walk. Whispel then drew a walk of her own. She was then replaced by pinch-runner Jenna Jones. After a NIU pitching change, McChesney put down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners up a base. Marshall hit an infield single over the pitcher’s head, scoring Lipscomb and moving Jones to third. After the second out was recorded, sophomore second baseman Eryn McCarver reached on an error by the shortstop. Jones scored on the play to make it 4-0. Senior first baseman Shanyn McIntyre followed with a triple to right center, scoring Marshall and McCarver and giving Miami a 6-0 advantage.
Meanwhile, junior pitcher Amber Logemann had been dominant in the circle for the ‘Hawks. Through the first four innings, she had allowed only one hit and had struck out six. The long break while Miami was scoring those four runs in the bottom of the fourth did seem to slow her momentum a bit. She walked a pair and gave up a hit in between recording her seventh strikeout of the game. The RedHawks traded an out for a run as a groundout brought home a Huskie runner and made it 6-1. NIU’s leading hitter Kayti Grable followed with a three-run home run over the leftfield fence to pull the Huskies to within two at 6-4.
In the top of the sixth, Logemann faced a jam of runners on second and third and only one out. She did not panic as she got a strikeout and a groundout to keep the advantage at two. She retired Northern Illinois in order in the top of the seventh to finish off the 6-4 win.
McIntyre finished the game 1-for-1 with two RBIs and two walks. Marshall was 2-for-4 with one RBI and two runs scored.
Logemann allowed four runs on four hits, while striking out eight. She earned her 27th victory of the year, which ties for the second-most in a single-season in Miami history.
