Mount Union shut down the Tyrone Lady Eagles on Monday at Tyrone’s Harry Sickler Athletic Complex 5-1.
Winning pitcher Jamie Endres limited the Lady Eagles to one run and just one hit in pitching the complete-game victory for Mount Union.
Tyrone put the lone run of the ballgame on the board in their final at bat. In the seventh inning, Hilary McNelis walked and Ashley Ripka singled for the Lady Eagle’s only base hit of the contest. Mount Union centerfielder Toyia Price let the ball get by her on Ripka’s single and McNelis scored all the way from first base, with Ripka ending up on second base.
Brittany Aurand led the Mount Union girls with a triple for the only extra-base hit of the game and three runs batted in. Bethany Smith and Kaylie Morrison each drove in one run.
Hilary McNelis pitched for the Lady Eagles, allowing just four hits, striking out seven and walking four. Endres stuck out nine Lady Eagles and walked a pair.
“Frustrating is the only way to describe this game,” explained Tyrone coach Lois Loncher. “This game was frustating the whole way around, We should have beaten Mount Union. Errors hurt us badly. We committed two in the third inning and both of those runners we put on base scored. Three runs instead of one or none made a tremendous difference in the rest of the game. We weren’t hitting the ball and our defense was sporadic at best. We did make some good defenseive plays, Ashley Pennabaker made a couple good plays going into the right field gap to make catches. We can’t always be consistent hitting the ball, but our defense should always be there. Today it wasn’t.”
The Lady Eagles softball squad (4-4) will travel to Huntingdon on Wednesday for a game, with the first pitch set for 4 p.m..
Mount Union 5 Tyrone 1
MOUNT UNION – Price, cf, 4-1-0; Knepp, dp, 2-0-0; Brown, 3b, 3-1-0; Endres, p, 4-2-1; Aurand, 2b, 3-1-2; Smith, ss, 3-0-1; Feathers, rf, 2-0-0; Morrison, c, 3-0-0; Lantz, 1b, 3-0-0, Grove, lf, 0-0-0. TOTALS 27-5-4.
TYRONE – Whitby, cf, 3-0-0; Stanton, 1b, 3-0-0; Stager, 2b, 3-0-0; McNelis, p, 2-1-0; Cherry, c, 3-0-0; Ripka, lf, 3-0-1; McAllister, dp, 2-0-0; Catich, ss, 2-0-0; Bryan, 3b, 2-0-0, Pennabaker, rf, 0-0-0. TOTALS 23-1-1.
Mount Union 003 002 0 5-4-2.
Tyrone 000 000 1 1-1-3.
Multiple Hits: MU- Aurand 2.
3B: MU- Aurand 1.
RBI: MU- Aurand 3, Smith 1, Morrison 1, T- Ripka 1.
SO: MU- Endres 9, T- McNelis 7.
BB: MO- Endres 2, T- McNelis 4.
WP: Endres LP: McNelis.
