DC Softball rebounds with two wins against Mount St. Joseph
Nick Williams, Assistant SID

CINCINNATI, Ohio – The Defiance College Softball team gained two more HCAC wins by beating Mount St. Joseph in a doubleheader by the scores 3-0 and 10-1.

Justine Johnston picked up her 14th win of the season in the first game, hurling a three-hit shutout, her sixth of the year. Melanie Bushman put DC on the board in the top of the third, with a two-RBI double, bringing in Renee Steffen and Stephanie Lieto. Kayla Crager would add another run in the top of the fourth when she led off the inning with a home run to right field. Those three runs would be all Johnston needed, as she surrendered only two more hits over the next three innings en route to the win.

Alicia Allen went a perfect 3-for-3 in the game, while Monica Sigurdson went 2-for-3. Bushman went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and Crager also went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

In the second game, Alicia Allen picked up her sixth win of the season, giving up only one run on four hits in six innings of work, with Brittany Sims pitching the final scoreless inning of relief. That run came in the bottom of the first, when Chelsea Rhodes hit an RBI single for the Lions. DC would get that run back in the following inning on an RBI single by Cori Long. At this point, the Jackets would just be getting started offensively, as the team would add two in the third, one in the fifth, and two in the sixth. The big inning came in the top of the seventh, when DC put up four runs in the inning, capped off by a two-RBI double by Kelsey Sugg. Brittany Sims would go 1-2-3 in the final inning in relief of Allen to give DC the doubleheader sweep.

Both Kelsey Sugg and Monica Sigurdson had four hits in five at-bats in the game, season highs for each player. Sugg added three runs scored and three RBIs, while Sigurdson had two RBIs and a run scored. Allen went 3-for-5 with a run scored.

DC plays its final home doubleheader of the season against Bluffton University tomorrow at 3:00 p.m.