Softball Tops Cowgirls, 5-1, To Open Final Day of Tournament – Ohio State Buckeyes
2/10/2002 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Feb. 10, 2002%^$
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%^$Northridge, Calif. – The Ohio State softball team opened its final day of competition at the Tournament of Champions at Northridge, Calif., with a 5-1 defeat of the Cowgirls of McNeese State Sunday. The Buckeye pitching staff limited MSU to one run on three hits while the offense, sparked by a two-run home run by Wendy Allen (So., Moreno Valley, Calif./Moreno Valley) in the second inning and five Buckeyes recording two hits apiece, collected five runs on 12 hits. The Buckeyes improved to 3-1 on the year and the Cowgirls slipped to 3-3.%^$
%^$”Wendy got a hold of that pitch and sent it down the left line,” Linda Kalafatis, OSU head coach said.” She had a really good weekend as did our three lefties at the top of the order. They were very efficient getting on base and moving on the base paths. The third day of a tournament is tough because of the games and travel. Our kids played with as much as energy as they could and we got the win.”%^$
%^$The left-handed batters for OSU did carry the load as the trio of Jennifer Link (Jr., Yorba Linda, Calif./Sonora), Anna Smith (Sr., Walnut, Calif./Diamond Bar) and Allen combined to go 5-for-11 with three runs scored and two stolen bases. Link opened the game drawing a walk and then stealing second. The Buckeyes’ 2-4 hitters went down in order via pop flies into the stiff Southern California wind to end the threat. In the MSU half of the inning, Jamie Manuel turned a leadoff single into the only run of the contest for the Cowgirls. Nicole Edlund sacrificed Manuel into scoring position and two batters later, Katie Trout’s single and subsequent error by JJ Johnson (Fr., LaMirada, Calif./LaMirada) allowed Manuel to cross the plate for the early 1-0 lead.%^$
%^$Neither team could muster a scoring threat in the second. The third inning is when the game opened up. With two outs and no one on, Smith reached on a single and Allen followed three pitches later with a blast over the left field fence that, with the aid of the wind, seemed to bend around the fair pole. OSU took the lead for good, 2-1, on Allen’s first home run of the year.%^$
%^$”The pitch was a little high and outside and I had been called on a similar pitch earlier in the count and I told myself I was not going to let it happen again,” Allen said. “I waited on the pitch and connected on it. It felt good once I hit the ball and I knew it was gone.”%^$
%^$MSU could not answer the rest of the game sending at most four batters to the plate in any of the remaining innings. After Sarah West (Sr., Galloway, Ohio/Hilliard Davidson) reached on a single in the fourth, pinch-runner Meghan Rowlands (Fr., Hilliard, Ohio/Bishop Ready) moved to second on a Kristi DeVries (So., Corona, Calif./Corona) sacrifice bunt and then stole third base on batter later. Rowlands came into score on a double by Link.%^$
%^$After four solid innings in the circle for DeVries (three hits, two walks and two strikeouts), Allen came in to close the game out and got off to a hot start. Allen struck out the side to open the fifth and did not allow a hit in her three innings of work for her first save of the year. The Buckeyes, after an uneventful fifth and sixth innings, tallied their final two runs of the game with three singles in a row by Smith, Allen and Roth, respectively. Smith and Allen scored the runs and Roth was stranded on base at the end of the inning. Allen closed out the game facing five batters surrendering one walk, striking out her sixth of the contest and coaxing one fly out and one ground out.%^$
%^$Ohio State returns to action next week at the University of Houston Tournament with games slated against Baylor, Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston State and McNeese State.
