GRANVILLE, Ohio (March 30, 2023) – Only two days before the start of North Coast Athletic Conference play, the Denison University softball team hosted Marietta College for nonconference action on Thursday. However, the Big Red came up short in both games against the Pioneers, falling 8-4 in game one and 13-7 in game two at the Denison Softball Field.
 
Game 1 (Denison 4, Marietta 8):

• Marietta had three hits in each of the first two innings and led it 5-0 through two innings.
• Brooke Surbaugh (3-3) pitched a 1-2-3 top of the third inning and stranded a leadoff single on third base in the top of the fourth to try and give the Big Red offense a chance to get back into it.
• Surbaugh then helped her own cause and got the Big Red on the board with a sacrifice fly to center field in the bottom of the third inning.
• However, Marietta got the run back in the top of the fourth as a stolen base put a runner into scoring position with two outs, and it paid off for the Pioneers when a bloop single to right field brought in the run to make it 6-1.
• Clara Wolff led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a single to left field before coming around to score from second base on a two-out RBI-single up the middle by Annabelle Calderon to make it 6-2.
• After Marietta added a pair of unearned runs in the top of the sixth inning, Denison tried to put together a big inning in the bottom half as Surbaugh led off with a single to right field before Alessandra Groome followed with a single to center and Charlotte Doulette came up with an RBI-double to right field.
• Groome later scored from third base on a sacrifice fly to left field by Maggie Ballentine to make it 8-4, but that is the closest the Big Red would get as a swinging strikeout stranded another potential run on second base.
• Calderon added a one-out double to right field in the seventh inning and matched Surbaugh with two hits for the game.

 
Game 2 (Denison 7, Marietta 13):

• Marietta struck quickly with a two-run home run to left field by Rachel Kazmirski in the top of the first inning. After finishing as one of five Pioneer hitters with two hits in game one, Kazmirski entered game two hitting .523 with six home runs on the year.
• Then after Marietta left two runners in scoring position in the top of the first, Denison started off its half of the inning with three straight singles by Ballentine, Brianna Gonzalez and Jacqui Abogado, and that set the table for a grand slam to center field by Calderon to give Denison its first lead of the day.
• Unfortunately, the lead was short-lived as Marietta put up five runs on four hits, three wild pitches and two hit by pitches in the top of the second inning to jump back ahead by a score of 7-4.
• After a nice running catch in the left centerfield gap by Gonzalez prevented at least one Marietta run in the top of the third inning, Abogado and Calderon led off the bottom half of the third with back-to-back singles before Groome picked up an RBI on a fielder's choice to score Calderon and make it 7-5.
• However, after a swinging strikeout left a runner on third base that could have cut Denison's deficit to just one run, a two-out walk on just four pitches in the top of the fourth inning came back to bite Sophia Parpala and the Big Red as Marietta hit back-to-back RBI-doubles to double up the score at 10-5.
• After entering to pitch after the grand slam in the first inning, Jillian Middleton (4-3) allowed just three hits and one run to go along with three walks and six strikeouts entering the final inning. She then ended with 6.1 innings pitched allowing five hits, three runs and five walks in total for the Pioneers.
• Calderon finished 3-for-4 with five RBI's and three runs scored while Abogado was 2-for-3 and Ballentine was 2-for-4.

 
Records:

• Both teams entered the day 7-5 overall as Marietta improved to 9-5 and Denison dropped to .500 at 7-7.

 
Next Up: The Big Red will kick off the month of April by opening up North Coast Athletic Conference action on the road at the College of Wooster, starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 1, before hosting Oberlin College the next day (Apr. 2) also starting at 1 p.m.