Dordt sweeps DWU softball

The Dakota Wesleyan softball team got a pair of strong pitching performances in its first home doubleheader of the season Wednesday night.

But the Tigers just couldn’t get the bats going.

Not one bit.

DWU was able to muster just four hits in each game and saw its defense let it down late in the nightcap as the Tigers were swept by Dordt College — losing 2-0 in the opener, and 4-0 in eighth innings in the nightcap — in the teams’ Great Plains Athletic Conference opener at Cadwell Park.

“We didn’t hit the ball at all today,” DWU coach Marie McCarthy-Foster said. “I think our pitchers pitched fairly well; we have to be able to answer back and score some runs and we just didn’t do that today.”

In the second game, freshman Kelsey Timmons pitched well through seven innings, but didn’t get much help from the offense. The Tigers ultimately gave up four runs — and committed three errors — in the top of the eighth inning.

Dordt’s Becca Hengeveld led off the eighth with a single and Kaitlyn Lockhorst attempted to move her to second with a bunt. But the Tigers committed an error on the sacrifice and opened the door for a huge inning, which the Defenders 3-7) took full advantage of.

After the misplay and a walk to Carla Vander Woude, Dordt got a sacrifice fly from Amber Soodsma to score the first two runs of the game. Then first baseman Sarah Seymour belted a two-run homer over the left-field wall to blow the game wide open.

“(Timmons) pitched very well,” McCarthy-Foster said. “She was throwing strikes and sitting them down until the bottom of the eighth, and even then we should have been out of that inning a lot earlier because of the defensive breakdowns.”

The Tigers only threatened on rare occasions, leaving one runner on base in the first, second and sixth innings of game 2.

In the opener, it was Roni Nekrassoff that was handed the tough-luck loss in the circle for DWU (4-11), which was playing its first home games of the season after returning from Arizona.

Nekrassoff struck out seven and allowed two runs on six hits in seven innings, but was topped by Soodsma’s complete-game shutout for Dordt.

Seymour, a long, left-handed batter, also had the big hit in game 1 — an RBI triple that scored Soodsma with the first run of the game in the top of the sixth.

Sophomore left fielder Lauren Lynds went 2-for-3 to lead the DWU offense, which will need to get back in the swing of things before this weekend. The Tigers travel to Nebraska for doubleheaders against Midland Lutheran College and Concordia University on Friday and Saturday before returning home to host Mayville State University next Wednesday.

“We just got back from Arizona and we hit a ton down there, so it’s just a matter of us getting consistent,” McCarthy-Foster said. “Down there, we had some games where we’d hit the snot out of the ball, and other games where we’d come out and do what we did today.

“(Today) will definitely be a batting practice day. We’ve got two really good teams coming up this weekend.”

Tags: dakota wesleyan, sports, tigers, softball, dordt