DC Softball sweep keeps Jackets in first-place in HCAC
Nick Williams, Assistant SID

Defiance vs Rose-Hulman: Game 1 / Game 2

DEFIANCE, Ohio – The Defiance College Softball team kept its win streak alive and remained perfect in the HCAC with a pair of conference wins against Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology by the score 4-0 and 4-3.

DC got on the board early and never looked back in the first game. Krystle Skaziak took advantage of an Engineer error in the first at-bat of the game and would later come around to score the first run of the game off of an RBI single by Kelsey Sugg. DC put two more on the board in the inning in the form of Sugg and Renee Steffen to go up 3-0 after the first.

Those three runs proved to be all Justine Johnston would need as the sophomore had one of her best outings of the season. Although she did not strikeout a batter, she allowed only three hits and two walks in the game en route to the complete game shutout.

Sugg had two hits and two RBIs in the game, while Amanda Auzins added a hit and an RBI of her own. Skaziak, Sugg, Steffen, and Aarika Davis all scored once in the game.

The nightcap of the doubleheader would prove to be not as easy as the first game, as the Engineers made things interesting halfway through the game. DC took an early 1-0 lead in the first when Steffen knocked in Krystle Skaziak with an RBI single.

Robin Diers was able to hold the one-run lead for three innings until Rose-Hulman came through with three runs in the fourth to take its first lead of the day. The lead would not last long as the Jackets tied the game at three in the bottom half of the inning.

Johnston came on in relief in the sixth and looked even more dominant in her second appearance of the day, holding the Engineers hitless in her two innings of work and setting up a dramatic seventh-inning rally.

With two outs in the seventh, Davis kept the inning alive with a single up the middle, bringing up Steffen. Steffen came through as the heroine of the day, plating Davis with a double in left center, splitting the defenders and bringing in the winning run.

Steffen went 3-for-4 in the game with two RBIs including the game-winner. Melanie Bushman had two hits, while Kayla Crager scored a run.

Defiance (13-15, 6-0 HCAC) will maintain its first-place standing in the HCAC until at least Saturday, as the Jackets will host a non-conference matchup against Heidelberg College Tuesday at 3:00 p.m.