No. 10 Pioneers spilt twinbill with Presidents
Marietta's win streak snapped at 17 with 8-3 extra-inning loss

Apr. 2, 2006
MARIETTA, Ohio — Head Coach Jeanne Arbuckle figured that her team's win streak would come to an end at some point and Sunday (Apr. 2) turned out to be the day, as visiting Washington & Jefferson (Pa.) scored seven unanswered runs in the second game of a doubleheader to snap Marietta's win streak at 17 games with an 8-3, eight-inning victory. The Pioneers defeated the Presidents in the opener 5-1.

With the split, Marietta moved to 20-2 on the season. It is only the fourth time in team history that Marietta has reached the 20-win plateau and first time since 1999, when the Pioneers finished 21-19. The school record for victories is 25, set in 1996. Washington & Jefferson improved to 10-9 on the spring.

The Pioneers' Kristen Quintana took the ball for game one of the afternoon. She retired the first seven in a row before the Presidents got their first hit in the fourth inning.

Marietta's offense got going in the second. Junior Lindsey Romick led off with a double. Freshman Nikki Driscoll followed with a single to advance Romick to third base. Freshman Christina DeMoss picked up the RBI with a ground out to third base and the Pioneers led 1-0.

Romick, Driscoll and DeMoss supplied the Pioneers' next run in the fourth inning. Romick opened the frame with a walk, was sacrificed to second on a bunt by Driscoll and scored on a DeMoss double to left field.

Sophomore Brandy Jacob added a RBI triple, which scored sophomore Krista Huffman in the fifth to make the score 3-0 in favor of the Pioneers.

Washington & Jefferson got to Quintana for its only run in the sixth, when Stephanie Spisak drilled the first pitch of the inning off the left field scoreboard for a home run.

Marietta, like it has done all year, answered in its half of the inning with runs of its own. Romick singled and Driscoll sacrificed her to second again. Romick went on to score on a wild pitch. Senior Sue Schwambergeralso walked and scored on an error in the inning to complete the scoring.

Five runs proved more than enough for Quintana, who scattered four hits and struck out eight in the complete game victory to improve to 12-1 on the year.

Rebecca Nachreiner (6-2) took the loss, allowing five runs on six hits, while walking four and striking out one.

Romick led Marietta's offense with two hits in two at-bats and also scored three runs.

Junior Jenny Carroll finished 0-for-3 to end her school-record setting 13-game hit streak.

In game two, the Pioneers led 2-0 after the second inning. Romick led off with a walk. DeMoss, the game two pitcher, followed one out later with a home run to left.

The Presidents scored a run in the fourth when Spisak had a RBI single. Emily McComb singled and scored to extend Marietta's lead back to two runs, 3-1, in the bottom of the third.

The score remained the same until the sixth, when Washington & Jefferson tied the game with a two-run single by Melissa Metcalf.

Neither team could score in the seventh, so the game went into extra innings. In the eighth, the Presidents plated five runs on five hits to take an 8-3 lead. Marietta did not have another comeback in it like it did on Saturday against Ohio Northern and Washington & Jefferson went on to win 8-3.

Overall, the Presidents out hit the Pioneers 9-to-5. DeMoss was tagged for five runs on six hits in 7.1 innings. Quintana relieved her to get the final two outs but gave up three runs of her own before it was over.

Marietta will look to get back on track Tuesday (Apr. 4) when Wilmington visits Marietta Field for a 3:30 p.m. doubleheader. The Pioneers are the only undefeated team left in the Ohio Athletic Conference. The Quakers (3-12, 1-1 OAC) are coming off a doubleheader split with Otterbein on Saturday.