Contact: Adam Poklop, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, 630-637-5302

Game One Box Score

Game Two Box Score

Mar. 23, 2019 – Playing their second doubleheader at Shanower Family Field in two days, the North Central College softball team swept the Saint Mary's College Belles (1-12) with a 5-2 win in game one followed by a 4-1 victory in the nightcap to lengthen their undefeated start to the season to 12 games.

Emily Miller kicked off the opener with a leadoff single and worked her way around the bases, scoring when the Belles couldn't handle a sacrifice bunt attempt cleanly. Taylor Clugston led off the bottom of the third with a solo shot that easily cleared the center field wall to put the Cardinals up 2-0. Two innings later, Rachele Belletini connected for a two-run home run, her third of the season. Samantha Gadomski added another run in the inning, knocking an RBI single to score Breanna Adams.

Saint Mary's crossed the plate in the sixth inning off a sacrifice fly and added one more in the top of the seventh before Adams forced the final out of the game on a fielder's choice.

Godomski earned the win for the Cardinals, tossing six innings to improve to 3-0 on the season. Clugston went two-for-three with a game-high two runs, while Belletini led both teams with three RBIs.

The nightcap began just as the opener did, with North Central scoring early. By the time the dust settled, North Central led 3-0 after one inning, tallying four hits, with the benefit of a Belles error. The Cardinals started the inning with three straight hits, with Clugston, Belletini and Molly Cann all recording RBI hits. North Central has now put up first-inning runs in ten of their twelve games, and has scored first in all but one of their contests.

Jaime Smith scored the Cardinals fourth and final run in the third inning off Gadomski's single. The Belles found a run in the top of the sixth inning, and made it a ball game in the top of the seventh, with two runners in scoring position and the tying run at the plate, but Gianna Corban got the final batter to strike out swinging.

Corban, who tossed seven innings and struck out three while surrendering just one run on six hits, improved to 3-0 with an ERA of .75. Miller's bat was red-hot in the nightcap, hitting four-for-four in the leadoff spot and scoring one run. Also tallying multiple hits was Clugston, who had a pair of hits and one RBI.

North Central (12-0) plays a doubleheader against local rival Benedictine University (8-2) on March 27, with game one start time set for 4:30 p.m.