May 2, 2008

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ATHENS, Ohio - The Ohio softball team won both games of a doubleheader against Bowling Green Friday afternoon at the Ohio Softball Field.

The Bobcats (24-23, 9-11 MAC) shut out the Falcons (15-22, 12-5 MAC) in game one, 8-0, and won game two, 3-2, when senior Kristen Salvatore hit a walk-off single to center field.

Rookie pitcher Emily Wethington (New Palestine, Ind.) came just shy of her career-high with 10 strikeouts in game one and outpitched MAC East Pitcher of the Week Hayley Wiemer to help the Bobcats record their sixth shutout of the season.

It was Wiemer's first conference loss of the season. She gave up eight hits and six runs in the game, while recording zero walks and only two strikeouts. Wethington allowed just two hits, while pitching her 11th complete game.

The Bobcats had 10 hits in the game, including two each from senior Courtney Waters (Eagle River, Alaska) and sophomore Deanna Hartsough (Santa Ana, Calif.). Waters finished the game 2-for-4 with three runs and an RBI, while Hartsough finished 2-for-3 with a career-high four RBI. Junior Maureen McKelvey (Stow, Ohio) led all players with three hits in the game, going 3-for-3 with a run and an RBI.

Dawnjene Delong and Katelynn Boso each had hits for the Falcons, including a double by Delong in the top of the first and a single by Boso in the top of the fifth.

All of Bowling Green's scoring in game two came off home runs by Delong and Wiemer.

The Bobcats had a 2-1 lead after the fourth inning as Waters hit an RBI single to score senior Amanda Sacks (Chugiak, Alaska), and sophomore Shalene Petrich (Chehalis, Wash.) doubled to score Waters. Petrich recorded hits in both games of the day, extending her hitting streak to a season-best 12 games.

Wiemer's home run in the sixth tied the game, 2-2, but after the Falcons went scoreless in the top of the seventh, Salvatore's (Kirtland, Ohio) two-out RBI single scored Waters for the win. Waters finished the game 3-for-4 with two runs and an RBI.

Senior pitcher Michelle Sauter (Chehalis, Wash.) continued her reign as Ohio's all-time strikeouts leader, fanning two batters for 400 career strikeouts. Sauter is now 12-9 on the season and tied with Kasey Dowd (1998-01) with the most wins in program history (45). Wethington started the game for the Bobcats and struck out seven batters in just 3.1 innings of action.

Emily Gouge took the loss for the Falcons. Gouge pitched 6.2 innings and gave up 12 hits, three earned runs and two walks. She also struck out four.

Ohio will face Toledo tomorrow at 2 p.m. for the first match-up of a two-game series.