COLUMBUS, Ohio –  The Capital University softball team opened its season on March 13 with a doubleheader against Ohio Northern University and notched a pair of wins on Opening Day. Both wins came in one-run affairs, one going into extra innings at Clowson Field.

GAME 1  |  W, 3-2
Box score

Sophomore Brianna Shearer (W, 1-0) took to the circle and pitched four innings of one-hit ball, striking out three and setting the table to allow the offense to do its part.

Cap scored first courtesy of an Erica Ogden sacrifice fly in the bottom of the first inning. Maria Keller doubled up the lead when her infield single set up a stolen base to put her into scoring position. Alli Bican's wild pitch advanced Keller to third, which proved costly for the Polar Bears when Haley Gray plucked a single down the right field line, scoring one.

The Purple and White leapt to its feet when Alyx Wulff blasted her first career home run over the center field fence to lead off the bottom of the fourth. This proved to be the eventual game-winning run after Ohio Northern plated runs in the fifth and seventh innings.

Freshman Katie Wilhelm came into the game to relieve Kim Rega for the final inning. Wilhelm recorded her first two career strikeouts to start the inning, but nine hitter Annika Murray hit a solo homer to center to make for a one-run game, 3-2. Leadoff hitter Alicia Swierz drew the count full but popped up the payoff pitch, which was caught by Lauren Kachure to end the game.

GAME 2  |  W, 8-7 (F/9)
Box score

A pair of errors allowed Ohio Northern to jump out to a 2-0 lead after its first at bat, but the Crusaders responded in a big way by scoring six in the bottom of the first.
With the bases loaded, junior Haley Gray (LOCATION) split the gap in left center which cleared the bases and gave Capital the lead. Grau then came around to score on Kachure's single through the left side of the infield.  After Alysa Durbin's ground out scored Cap's fourth run, Lexi Leggett crushed her first career home run, also over the center field fence, to add two more runs.

Ohio Northern came back with two runs against starter Madrienne Herdlick in the second to make for a 6-4 game. Lexi Anderson entered in the third and allowed one run in two innings of work before giving way to Brianna Shearer in the fifth. Shearer also allowed one run in her 1.1 innings of work, tying the score at 6-6.

In the home half of the fifth, Cap retook the lead behind Kachure's sac fly but the lead was short-lived when in the sixth ONU's Abby Elliott roped an RBI single to right, making an earlier passed ball costly. But that score would stand for another two-plus innings.

After stranding two ONU runners in the top of the ninth, Cap freshman Tiffany Zuelzke opened up the bottom half with a single up the middle. Using small ball tactics, Cap moved Zuelzke to second for Grau, who played the hero with a single through the left side. ONU left fielder Lauren Walls attempted to come up throwing but did not get a clean scoop and Zuelzke was off to the races to score the game-winning run.

Zuelzke scored three times, reaching base in all three of her plate appearances with one hit and two walks. Grau ended game two going 3-for-4 with four RBIs to help power the Cap offense.

NEXT UP
Capital (2-0) will head to Ada for the second leg of this four-game series against Ohio Northern on Sunday, March 14. First pitch of game one is set for 1 p.m.
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ADDITIONAL INFO
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