JOLIET, Ill. -- Emily Boyle earned her 17th victory in the circle and Chylece Cluck collected 11 assists on the day enabling the University of St. Francis softball team to claim a 15-1 Game 1 victory over Olivet Nazarene University on Tuesday afternoon, but a seventh-inning offensive spurt by the visiting Tigers kept the Fighting Saints from registering a Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader sweep with a 1-0 Game 2 final score.  St. Francis honored its six seniors - Chylece Cluck, Emily Hurst, Maddi Jones, Hailey Kaddatz, Isabella Landeros, Jaelynn Taylor – in between games.

The Saint batters accumulated 23 total hits between the two games and four Saints - Morgan Smardo (3-for-4, 6 RBI), Kamryn Koontz (3-for-5, 2 RBI), Sarah Viar (2-for-5, 2 RBI) and Hailey Kaddatz (2-for-3, 2 RBI) - all got the day off on the right foot with multi-RBIs in Game 1.  Each above hitter along with Isabella Landeros (4-for-5), Kylie Cook (3-for-7) and Emily Hurst (2-for-5) also recorded multiple hits on the afternoon, split between the two contests.

Game 1:  USF 15, Olivet Nazarene 1
St. Francis got off to a quick start against the Tigers in game one en route to scoring a 15-1 mercy rule victory.  The Saints asserted their offensive dominance through a powerful offensive attack, using 17 hits and five walks to produce their 15 runs.

There was plenty of offense to go around for USF with five different players authoring multi-hit games.  Smardo led the way with a perfect 2-for-2 showing at the plate, one walk, two runs scored, and a career-best five RBIs.  She also connected for her second homerun of the season – a three-run blast - in the fourth inning.

Other big hitters in the game were Cook (3-for-4, 1 RBI), Koontz (2-for-2, 2 RBI), Viar (2-for-2, 2 RBI), Landeros (2-for-3, 3 runs) and Kaddatz (1-for-2, 2 RBI).  Hurst, Jaelynn Taylor, Missy Saldana, Juliana Anderson and Chylece Cluck each also added one hit apiece to the Saints' offensive effort.

St. Francis broke a scoreless tie in the second inning via a RBI single from Smardo to score Landeros before sending 11 hitters to the plate in each of the third and fourth innings, which produced matching totals of seven runs off of seven hits.  The biggest swing of the game belonged to Smardo who produced a three-run homerun in the fourth inning, which was part of a combined team super-cycle, with Landeros accounting for the triple, Kaddatz the double, Boyle the walk, and four Saints each authoring a single.

Boyle notched three strikeouts against four walks in her complete game victory in the circle.  The junior allowed just three hits in her five innings of work, while allowing one earned run in the fourth inning.

Game 2:  Olivet Nazarene 1, USF 0
The Saints had a trio of opportunities to score in the early innings before ONU hurler Victoria Strines shut the door on USF.  Strines retired six of the final USF seven batters in the last two innings while facing 28 total in the contest.

Landeros and Koontz authored back-to-back two-out base hits in the second inning, but could only get as far as second base.  The Saints were then able to load the bases in the fourth frame, but an infield popout squelched that opportunity before three consecutive outs were made off five pitches in the fifth inning after Smardo led the stanza off with a double to centerfield.

The game remained scoreless until the seventh inning when Olivet took advantage of a two-out walk by stringing together back-to-back singles produced the only run of the contest.

Kaitlyn Schofield (14-8) was solid in her complete-game effort, allowing just the one run on five hits with one strikeout against one walk.  The junior induced 12 groundball outs in the contest with Cluck assisting in eight.

Up Next
The Saints will be at home on Friday (April 24) in a single game matchup against Judson University.  First pitch is at 3 pm at the Harlow Lockwood Softball Fields.

You can keep up with everything happening around USF Athletics on X @USFSaints.