DAVENPORT, Iowa --- A career day at the plate and in the circle for
Emily Boyle and a three-run home run off the bat of
Hailey Kaddatz enabled the University of St. Francis softball team to gain a split of its Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader with St. Ambrose University on Saturday afternoon. The Fighting Saints rallied late but came up a run short in the 6-5 opener before scoring a 7-0 shutout win in the nightcap.
The split decision left USF (24-12, 10-4 CCAC) in a tie with Roosevelt University for the top spot in the league. The Lakers (14-16, 9-3) have played two less games than the Saints with one week remaining in the season.
The two teams square off in a doubleheader on Wednesday at the Inwood Softball Complex with the league title on the line. The contests will be the final ones of the conference regular season for USF, while Roosevelt closes out with Calumet College of St. Joseph in Whiting, Ind. next Saturday.
Besides tossing the shutout in the nightcap on Saturday, Boyle went 5-for-5 in the contest with a run batted in. She finished the twinbill with six hits.
Brittany Osborne collected a pair of hits in each contest and drove in three of the team's five runs in Game 1.
Game 1: St. Ambrose 6, USF 5
The Saints spotted St. Ambrose (16-23, 5-6) a 6-0 lead after four innings before putting their rally caps on over the final three innings.
Kylie Cook drove in
Isabella Landeros (leadoff double) with USF's first run of the game in the fifth inning. One inning later, back-to-back doubles by Kaddatz and Osborne cut the deficit to 6-2.
In the seventh inning, the first four St. Francis batters reached base with singles from Landeros, Cook and
Rose Mwaro and a walk to
Kiersten Manning. Mwaro cut the deficit to three runs with her single up the middle.
St. Ambrose then got a key double play before Osborne plated two more runs with her two-run single. Boyle put the tying run on second base one batter later before the Fighting Bees got out of the jam and secured the win with a forceout.
Landeros joined Osborne with a pair of hits in the contest.
Game 2: USF 7, St. Ambrose 0
Talk about having a game. Boyle authored both her first five-hit game and shutout at the collegiate level in the contest. She was a perfect 5-for-5 at the plate with one run batted in and another run scored.
In the circle, the freshman scattered four hits and four walks, while tying her season high with seven strikeouts. That enabled her to earn her fourth consecutive victory and improve to 4-2 overall.
Hailey Kaddatz got the offense rolling with her first home run as a Saint. The two-out, three-run shot to left centerfield came in the second inning.
USF's second three-run frame came in the sixth inning with Landeros (single) and Manning (sacrifice fly) getting credit for the runs batted in. The Saints' other run came off Boyle's single in the fourth inning.
Osborne, Kaddatz and Cook all went 2-for-4 in the nightcap.
Notes: Boyle's five hits were the most by a Saint this season … With her pair of multi-hit contests on Saturday, Osborne now has 20 such games among her 36 played this season … Landeros continued her hot streak with her two hits in the opener and one in the nightcap extending her streaks of hits to 14 games and reaching base to 17 contests … With her seven strikeouts on Saturday, Boyle has now struck out that many batters in three of her last four circle appearances … A sweep of Roosevelt on Wednesday would lock up the Saints' second straight league title. The doubleheader begins at 3:30 pm with Senior Day festivities set for in-between games.
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