ORLANDO, Fla. – Oakland University Softball grabbed two wins to start 2-0 in the 2022 campaign on day one at The Knights Classic Presented by Knight Pass with wins over National Fastpitch Coaches Association Receiving Votes squad James Madison and DePaul.


GAME ONE VS JAMES MADISON

The receiving votes Dukes got on the board early in the second as the Golden Grizzlies would respond with three runs of their own off a Jessie Munson leadoff double to left field. As Madi Herrington was walked, Arienna Grammatico would load the bases off a bunt before a throwing error from second base would safely get Oakland's first run across. 

Cammie Brummitt's sacrifice fly to right field brought Herrington home ahead of Lauren Griffith's single up the middle to finally bring Grammatico home for the third run to go up 3-1 over JMU.

Offenses became stagnant for both teams as the bats would cool off to go three-up-three down in back-to-back innings before the Dukes would extend the sixth off two RBI's to tie it up at 3-3 in the top of the sixth. 

With two outs in the bottom of the sixth, Herrington was able to get on base with a double to left field allowing Madison Jones to place an RBI single to center field to bring Herrington across to retake the edge in the close match.

James Madison would then ground out to shortstop, fly out to right field, and pop up to short to go three-up and down again to hand Oakland its first win of the 2022 campaign coming against a ranked opponent 4-3.

END 6 | Jones' RBI brings Herrington in to retake the lead.

Oakland 4, JMU 3 #DefendTheDen pic.twitter.com/2hBdAebVaa

— Oakland Softball (@OaklandSoftball) February 25, 2022

Jones got two hits off four at-bats with an RBI with Griffith getting to RBI in her three appearances at the plate with a single hit. 

Sydney Campbell would get her first win of the season pitching all seven innings to allow three earned runs with three strikeouts. 

GAME TWO VS DEPAUL

In a game that had more than 21 runners left on base between both teams, Oakland got a run on the board early as Griffith ripped one down the left field line as the frame ended and the Blue Demons went to dugout with the bases loaded to end the first inning.

DePaul would then put up five runners on base, in the next two innings as the Golden Grizzlies' bats couldn't find paydirt. The closest Oakland would come to threatening came in the fourth as Reese Ruhlman was walked in four-straight pitches ahead of Munson's single to left. Shannon Carr was then walked to load the bases before a pop-up ended OU's scoring threat.

Oakland would not leave another baserunner on the next two frames as the Blue Demons would put four on and receive no runs out of it. The game met at an offensive stalemate as the game bled over into extra innings where Jones would start on second and be brought across the plate by Ruhlman's RBI single to left center for the second win of the day at 1-0.

And then, 𝗶𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱.

Ruhlman's single to LC brought Jones home to take a 1-0 lead. 💪#DefendTheDen pic.twitter.com/5mAKAGyrxK

— Oakland Softball (@OaklandSoftball) February 25, 2022

Griffith would get two hits off four at-bats with a double to her name as Ruhlman's only hit in three tries tallied the only RBI of the black and gold in the win. 

Mia Konyvka started out the second game, finishing 3.2 innings of work with six hits, four walks, and a strikeout as Campbell came in relief, giving up one hit and striking out five Blue Demons as the redshirt sophomore would be credited with the win. Campbell posts a 1.85 earned run average through day one with eight hits and eight strikeouts.


Day two of the Knights Classic Presented sponsored by Knight Pass will have Oakland playing a single game against No. 4 Florida at 6:30 p.m.