The Marshall University softball team finished out its fall exhibition season Saturday by sweeping the final double header of the fall 8-0 and 13-1 over Ohio Valley University.
Head coach Shonda Stanton said she was pleased with her team’s performance.
“(Jordan) Dixon and (Brittanie) Fowler provided strong starts,” Stanton said in a press release. “And we got solid relief innings from our freshmen.”
Junior pitcher Jordan Dixon started game one in the circle for Marshall and shut down the Fighting Scots. From the first inning into the fourth, Dixon did not allow a base hit and retired 10 straight batters with nine in a row coming by strikeout.
Dixon threw five innings and finished with 11 strikeouts.
Senior Brittanie Fowler started game two and pitched three shutout innings allowing only one hit and striking out four.
Freshmen Ali Burdette, Cheyenne Meyer and Abigail Tolbert combined through both games to throw four innings, allowing only two hits and one run to Ohio Valley.
On the offensive side, senior Katalin Lucas got things rolling in the first inning in game one with an RBI triple to left center that scored fellow senior Kaelynn Greene.
Freshman Brianna Daiss followed the score with an RBI single that scored Lucas. Daiss would add a big hit in the fifth with a solo home run to right center, her first of the fall that gave Marshall a 5-0 lead.
In game one, Greene finished 2-3 at the plate and scored two runs along with two stolen bases. Lucas went 2-4 with a run and two RBIs.
Daiss finished 3-4 with two RBIs and senior Alyssa Woodrum drove in two runs as well. Sophomore Taylor McCord added two hits as Marshall finished the game with 14 hits in all, as well as five stolen bases.
In game two, Marshall scored on seven runs on eight hits in the first inning. Burdette added the Herd’s second triple of the day that drove in two runs.
The Herd scored three more in the second, one run in the third and the final two runs of the game in the fourth. The last two runs came after freshman Summer Collins ,who reached base safely on a fielder’s choice, scored on an inside-the-park home run by junior Morgan Zerkle.
“We got results up and down the line giving us a number of options to produce runs,” Stanton said. “Our coaching staff is fired up to get to work with our athletes in the off season because of their coachability. We are enjoying coaching this group.”