Marshall Softball and Baseball wrapped up their weekend series against App State with opposite outcomes Saturday, April 4, as Softball completed a sweep at home while Baseball fell short on the road.
Softball added another conference series win to its season, finishing off a three-game sweep at Dot Hicks Field. The win moved the Herd to 28-10 overall and 10-2 in Sun Belt play, putting Marshall alone at the top of the conference standings.
Saturday’s game did not start in Marshall’s favor. App State came out swinging and put four runs on the board in the second inning, but the Herd turned the game around with its biggest offensive inning of the day.
Marshall sent seven runs across in the bottom half of the inning to erase the deficit and gain momentum back. Chandler Hoskins and Tia Titi each homered during the rally, and the Herd piled up five hits in the inning on its way to a 12-hit performance.
Head coach Megan Zerkle said the team’s ability to answer back stood out most throughout the weekend.
“It was really nice to see our offense be themselves this weekend,” Zerkle said. “We responded in a lot of innings; when they scored, we scored again. We put up seven after App State put up four – that was really impressive. Just proud of them for sticking to it and getting the sweep. That is hard to do in the Sun Belt.”
Marshall’s lineup stayed productive all weekend. Hoskins delivered at the plate in all three games, finishing the series with five hits and a home run in each contest. Ava Blake also put together a strong weekend and capped it off by going three-for-three Saturday. Titi continued to produce as well, recording six hits over the series and also homering in every game.
“I think this weekend just shows how offensively strong we really are as a team,” Blake said. “All weekend, if they go, we go, and we come back with more. That’s the kind of response and chip on our shoulder we want to have.”
Baseball was not able to finish its weekend at App State with a series win, falling 10-4 Saturday at Smith Stadium. The loss moved the Herd to 14-16 overall and 6-6 in Sun Belt Conference play.
Marshall got on the board first in the opening inning after A.J. Havrilla drove in Tyler Kamerer with a single to give the Herd an early 1-0 lead. App State responded in the second and took control with a four-run inning.
The Herd worked its way back into the game in the fifth. Kamerer picked up another RBI after bringing in Jackson Golden with a single, and Evan Bottone later came home on a double-play to trim the deficit to one.
Any momentum Marshall gained was short-lived, though, as App State hit back with three runs in the bottom of the inning. The Mountaineers continued to build on their lead over the next few innings and kept Marshall from getting any closer.
The Herd added one more run in the ninth when Jackson Halter was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, but the late push ended there as App State closed out the game with a strikeout.
Baseball returns home Friday, April 10, to open a conference series against Old Dominion at Jack Cook Field while Softball heads to Coastal Carolina for its next Sun Belt matchup.
Ella Hatfield can be contacted at [email protected].
