February 5, 2008

Eight is enough
Falcons claim second extra-inning win on Savannah trip
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SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – Notre Dame played a split doubleheader Friday. The Falcons went 1-1, with a morning loss West Virginia Wesleyan and an afternoon win over Lindsey Wilson College (KY). The Falcons dropped the opener, 2-1, and won the nightcap, 4-3 in eight innings. The extra-inning victory is NDC's second of the trip. The Falcons are now 3-3 through six games.

Game One (WVWU 2, NDC 1)
In the opener, the Falcons were blanked for six innings by the Bobcat tandem of Stephanie Wheeler (Jr/Phoenix, AZ) and Amber Collier (So/Greene County, VA). NDC starter Meredith Harbarger (Akron, OH) allowed two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning on a two-run homer.

Other than that hiccup, Harbarger pitched a nearly spotless six frames. The Falcon freshman allowed just four base runners (three hits, one walk), while striking out four.

In the top of the seventh, an Anna Ball (Jr/Bellville, OH) single scored Stephanie Tartaglione (Jr/Euclid, OH) with two outs, and Ball advanced to second on the throw home. Abby Wolfe (Sr/Fort Wayne, IN) then lined out to Collier to end the game with the tying run in scoring position.

NDC garnered five hits in the game to go along with a pair of walks. Neither nine made an error.

Game Two (NDC 4, LWC 3 - 8 inn.)
In Friday's second game, NDC struck first. Anna Ball hit a solo home run, her first of the season, to stake pitcher Katie Lapczenski (Jr/Willoughby Hills, OH) to a 1-0 lead in the first. The Falcons added a second run in the second on four walks by LWC starter Leigh Ann Moore (Sr/Dawson Springs, KY).

Lapczenski was tagged with three unearned runs in the top of the next inning, the fourth, when the Blue Raiders strung together two hits and a walk sandwiched between an Anna Ball error and two passed balls by junior catcher Jill Gigliotti (Medina, OH). That gave Lindsey Wilson a 3-2 lead.

Behind the solid pitching of Olivia Holland in relief, the Blue Raiders would hold onto that lead until the bottom of the seventh. In the seventh, a two-out double by senior transfer Kim Corbets (Solon, OH) plated Lianna Holub (Jr/Reminderville, OH) for the tying run.

Meredith Harbarger, who came on in relief of Lapczenski in the sixth, held the Blue Raiders scoreless in the eighth. Abby Wolfe cut down the would-be go-ahead run at home plate on an attempted fly ball advance.

In the NDC half of the eighth, Ball served a pitch from reliever Danielle Clark (Nanaimo, BC) into right field to score Abby Wolfe.

For the game, NDC had 13 batters reach base. That ties a season-high. Harbarger picked up the win with three scoreless frames in her pitching line. The freshman from Akron's Manchester High School has appeared in all six of the Blue & Gold's games this week.

NDC will return to action Saturday in what will be their last day in Savannah at the Smash Hit Softball Tournament. The Falcons are slated to play another split doubleheader, against Edward Waters (FL) at 10:00am and Georgetown (KY) at noon.

NOTES FROM THE NEST...

ON THE BALL: NDC slugger Anna Ball went 4-for-6 with two walks and three RBI's Friday. Ball is batting .400/.500/.650 (BA/OBP/SLG) through six games. The junior third baseman hit .496/.550/.770 last season in earning the AMC North Division Player of the Year award. Ball also garnered a Second Team All-American nod in 2007. ... The product of Bellville, Ohio is now just two RBI's short of 100 for her career. She would become the first player in program history to drive in 100 runs.

STAT CHECK: Through half a dozen games, Notre Dame has scored 23 runs, while yielding 32. The Falcons have given up 20 earned runs and 12 of the unearned variety. ... As a team, NDC is hitting .236/.319/.335 for an OPS (on-base plus slugging) of .654. In 2007, Notre Dame set a program record for runs scored, batting .345/.390/.494 (.884).