CHICAGO – The Golden Grizzlies outlasted the Penguins from Youngstown State in the first round of the Horizon League tournament winning by a score of 6-4 in 15 innings of play. Each team recorded 17 hits each in the game that lasted just over four hours.
Lauryn Debono took charge on the mound, pitching 13.0 innings, a season high for the sophomore. Her 13 innings also set a new school record for innings pitched in a single game. The previous record was held by Crystal Ruddock who pitched 12.2 back in 2000. Debono also broke another personal season record with her 11 strikeouts. Debono faced 58 Penguins before
Emily Karas came in for relief, pitching 2.0 innings and closing out the game.
Jamie Squires went 5-for-6 with one walk in the contest while
Kelsie Swanson recorded four hits with two RBI.
Mikayela Marciniak and
Brittney Miller each added two hits each, one of Marciniak's being a solo home run.
In the bottom of the second, Youngstown jumped out in front thanks to a two run home run from their clean up hitter. Debono bounced back from the blow, striking out the next two batters to end the inning.
In the pitchers dual, both teams would remain scoreless through the sixth inning when
Mikayela Marciniak created the spark for her team, hitting a solo home run over the center field fence, her third homer of the season.
Down 1-2 going into the seventh,
Jackie Reitmeyer led off the inning singling in the hole to the shortstop. Reitmeyer advanced to second on a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt from
Shannon Carr before senior
Kelsie Swanson stepped up to the plate. Swanson launched a hard hit ball out to left center that was just out of the reach of Youngstown's center fielder, tying the game going into the bottom of the seventh.
Moving to the 12
th inning,
Kelsie Swanson's bat stayed hot as she tripled to right center with one out. With the infield pulled in
Jessie Munson put a ball in play that the Penguin's second baseman couldn't handle, allowing Swanson to cross the plate, putting her team up 3-2. In the bottom half of the inning, the Penguins plated one run on a single before
Rachel Zerona threw out the second runner at the plate from center field.
Swanson came up big again in the top of 13, sending a ball out to left field with the bases loaded, allowing the speedy
Jamie Squires to tag up from third to go up 4-3. Youngstown would answer once again in the bottom half of the inning as Birkbeck hit her second home run of the night, evening the score once more.
Moving into the 15
th inning and just passing the four hour mark of the game,
Shannon Carr led off the inning with a walk.
Rachel Zerona then put down a perfect bunt that was bobbled by the Penguin defense, putting runners on first and second with no outs. Swanson sacrificed herself, laying down another bunt and moving Carr to third and Zerona to second.
With the game on the line, the Youngstown pitcher threw a ball in the dirt the catcher couldn't get a glove on, giving
Shannon Carr plenty of time to run home on the past ball, scoring the fifth run of the game to go up 5-4.
The Golden Grizzlies weren't happy with a single run lead however, as
Brittney Miller stepped up to the plate singling to center field, plating one more to take a 6-4 lead.
Emily Karas then shut down the Penguin offense, giving her team the win.
The Golden Grizzlies will continue competition tomorrow at 2:30 pm CT/3:30 ET taking on No. 2 Detroit Mercy.
#WEARtheBEAR
