Miami Splits Final Day in Nashville

Saturday, March 2

Nashville, Tenn.

11:00 a.m. ET

Miami University

8-5

Appalachian State

9-5

Appalachian State

Miami

3/2/2019 6:27:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Miami 5, Appalachian State 4 (9 inn.)Miami 1, Lipscomb 6 (PDF)

The RedHawks beat Appalachian State and lost to Lipscomb on Saturday.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Miami University softball team (8-6) split its doubleheader on the final day of the Lipscomb Tournament. The RedHawks beat Appalachian State in extra innings by a 5-4 margin in walk-off fashion. Miami then concluded the day with a 1-6 loss against Lipscomb.

Miami 5, Appalachian State 4 (9 inn.)

Courtney Vierstra pitched the complete game for the RedHawks, giving up three earned runs over nine innings. Vierstra struck out 13 batters and only walked one.
Vierstra went three up, three down with two strikeouts in the first inning and struck out the side in the second inning. She forced Appalachian State to go three up, three down in the third inning as well.

App. State scored first, putting up two runs in the top of the fourth inning – scoring one on an RBI double and the other on a wild pitch.

The score remained 2-0 in favor of Appalachian State until the bottom of the sixth inning when Miami tied the game at two. Mackenzie Moore had a lead-off walk and scored on a triple from the bat of Morgan Lott. Haeley Tran reached base on a fielder's choice and advanced to second on the throw. Lott scored on an error by the pitcher to tie the game.

Vierstra struck out the side again in the seventh but the RedHawks went down in order and the game required extra innings.

Vierstra forced Appalachian State down in order in the eighth inning. In the bottom of the eighth, Lott was placed on second according to the international tie-breaker rule. Johniann Wahl reached first on a fielder's choice but Lott was thrown out at home as she tried to score the game-winning run. Ashton Slone hit a single to advance Wahl to second but the two were stranded on base as Appalachian State forced a ninth inning.

Appalachian State led off the ninth with a sacrifice bunt to advance the runner to third. A single and a stolen base put runners on second and third with one out. Two singles with two outs gave App. State a 4-2 lead in the middle of the ninth inning.

Lily Wilmot led off the bottom of the ninth with an RBI double to score Jenny Vasquez, the runner placed on second, and cut App. State's lead to one. Kara Leckinger laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance Wilmot to third. Lizzie Bollinger reached base on a fielder's choice that saw Wilmot score to tie the game at four with one out. Moore singled to advance Bollinger to second. Both runners advanced to second and third on an out by Lott. With two out and two on, Tran hit a walk-off RBI single to score Bollinger.

Vierstra struck out 13 batters, her second-highest single-game total this season. Miami's five hits came from five different batters.

Miami 1, Lipscomb 6

Brianna Pratt started the game in the circle for the RedHawks, pitching 4.2 innings before being relieved by Taylor Rathe, who finished the game. Pratt struck out two batters and gave up six hits and four runs. Rathe struck out one batter and gave up two runs on one hit.

Lipscomb scored first in the bottom of the first inning. The lead-off batter was walked and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. The next batter singled and advanced to second on the throw that allowed the run to score.

Miami tied the game at one in the top of the second inning. Slone hit a lead-off double and Vasquez was hit by a pitch. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch. Wilmot hit an RBI single to score Slone.

The score remained 1-1 until the bottom of the fifth inning when Lipscomb scored five. The first two batters of the inning were retired before Lipscomb got into a groove. It started with a single and stolen base to put a runner on second. That runner scored on a double. The next batter hit a single and advanced on an error while another run scored to make it 3-1 with two outs and a runner on second. Rathe replaced Pratt in the circle. Rathe walked her first batter and the second batter hit a three-run home run to cap the game's scoring.

Wilmot had the lone RBI for the RedHawks while Slone and Moore each hit a double.

UP AHEAD

The RedHawks travel to Carbondale, Ill. for a tournament at Southern Illinois next weekend. Miami plays its first game of the weekend against the host team on Friday at 5:45 p.m. The RedHawks face the University of Illinois-Chicago and Butler on Saturday at 11 a.m. and 5:45 p.m., respectively. Miami wraps up the weekend with two games on Sunday, playing Green Bay at 11 a.m. and Iowa at 3:30 p.m.