No. 5 Muskingum sweeps softball doubleheader from No. 11 Marietta
Pioneers fall into second place in the OAC standings

Apr. 13, 2006
MARIETTA, Ohio — Two of the nation’s top-ranked softball teams got together at Marietta Field for an Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) showdown Tuesday (Apr. 13) afternoon. The doubleheader featured No. 5 Muskingum, who has won the last eight OAC titles, and host No. 11 Marietta, who entered the day atop the Conference standings.

The Pioneers (23-5, 7-3 OAC) found hits hard to come by throughout the day and the Muskies (27-3, 7-1 OAC) got just enough offense to pull off the sweep, 1-0 and 6-0, to take control of the OAC standings.

A huge crowd was treated to fantastic battle in game one. Muskingum’s leadoff hitter Kim Tackett provide the biggest hit of the game right off the bat, when she drove a Kristen Quintana pitch over the left field fence for a solo home run.

Tackett’s home run turned out to be the only run of the game, as the Muskies withstood a seventh-inning rally from the Pioneers to pick up the 1-0 victory. Marietta junior Lindsey Romick opened the final frame with a double. She moved to third on a ground out by freshman Nikki Driscoll. The Pioneers had to chance to get Romick home with the tying run, but Muskingum's third baseman Heather Fields snagged a ground ball off the bat junior Jessy Hutchison and fired to first base to end the game.

Quintana (13-3) suffered the hard-luck loss, allowing the lone run on six hits. She struck out five and walked one. Muskingum’s Amy Mattin earned the win, a two-hit shutout, to improve to 12-0 on the spring.

The Muskies took the momentum from game one and turned it into a 6-0 game two victory.

Muskingum broke a scoreless tie with four unearned runs in their half of the third. Kari Hoying delivered the big blow, a two-run home run to straight-away center field.

The Muskies added two insurance runs in the top of the seventh, when Hoying hit her second home run of the game. This time, it was a two-run shot to left center field.

The six runs was more than enough for Erica Hoyt, who held the Pioneers to just three hits to improve to 10-3 on the season. Freshman Christina DeMoss suffered the loss and fell to 8-2. She allowed four runs (all unearned) on seven hits in 2.6 innings of work. Quintana finished the game and gave up two runs on four hits in 4.3 innings.

Marietta will look to regroup Friday (Apr. 14), when it hosts John Carroll for an OAC doubleheader. First pitch at Marietta Field is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. and the action can be heard on WMOA-AM 1490 and mariettaonline.com