Contact: Tyler Friel, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, 630-637-5302

Game one box score
Game two box score

FORT MEYERS, Fla. (19 March 2017) – In their two longest games of the season, the North Central College softball team split their doubleheader against Manchester University, taking game one 6-5 in eight innings while losing game two 5-4 in ten innings Sunday at Century Link Sports Complex.

Manchester owned a 2-0 lead by the third inning but in the bottom half, the Cardinals Jenna Trojniar doubled down the left field line to cut the lead in half. North Central blew the game open in the fourth, scoring four runs on five hits in the inning. A leadoff single from Anna Seffernick started the inning and a Brooke Kehoe double put both runners in scoring position for Sarah Esposito. Helping herself out, she would record a RBI single to tie the game. Jenna Amazzalorso then doubled to score Kehoe and take the lead followed by another double from Molly Price to cap off the inning.

Manchester would not go silently as they tied the game in the top of the seventh with three runs on four hits, forcing extra innings. Using the international tiebreaker, North Central scored in the bottom of the eighth as Jessica Weaver came across to give the Cardinals the win.

Weaver earned the win for the Cardinals in game one, improving to 2-2 on the year throwing 1.2 innings allowing two hits and one run. Esposito threw 6.1 innings on the day, allowing seven hits and four earned runs while striking out two.

Game two would be a similar story with a different outcome for North Central. Again, Manchester held a 2-0 lead until the Cardinals last at-bats where they tied the game with a Seffernick two-run homer to left field. The Spartans quickly answered with a run in the top of the eighth but North Central responded with a bases loaded walk to keep the score tied. In the tenth, the Spartans put two runs on the board and despite the fight of the Cardinals, they were only able to score one run on a sacrifice bunt but could not push the second run across, falling 5-4.

The Cardinals tallied 17 hits on the day to Manchester's 21. Seffernick finished the two games 4-for-9 with two RBI. Price tallied two RBI in game one while Esposito and Kehoe each added two hits in the first game.

North Central's next game is Tuesday, March 28 as they travel to Eureka College at 3 pm for a doubleheader.