RHINELANDER, Wis. – The UW-Stevens Point softball team (1-1) had quite an eventful Opening Day at the UTC Invite on Saturday. The Pointers split the day taking No. 16 Concordia (Wis.) (2-0) to extra innings in a 5-4 loss before picking up a 1-0 win over Edgewood (1-1).
Freshman
Trinity Otto (Mequon, Wis./Homestead) had three RBI on the day, all against CUW.
Rachel Baker (Richmond, Ill./Richmond-Burton Community) had the other UWSP RBI on the day with the Pointers' lone long ball.
Pitching was phenomenal with freshman
Ashley Zygowski (Saukville, Wis./Port Washington) and senior
Makenna Tkach (Streator, Ill./Marquette Academy) combining for a three-hit shutout against the Eagles. Tkach and
Abby Van Beek (Mayville, Wis./Mayville) scattered eight hits over nine innings in the game against CUW.
Game 1 – UWSP 4, #16 CUW 5 (9 inn.)
Tkach wiggled out of trouble a few times stranding five Falcons on base with three strikeouts through four innings as a scoreless tie remained.
In the fifth, CUW put up three extra-base hits to jump in front, 3-0.
Allie Meyers (Oak Forest, Ill./Oak Forest) began the UWSP sixth with a pinch-hit single. After
Sophia Heckendorf (Jackson, Wis./Kettle Moraine Lutheran) reached on a sac bunt, two batters later, a throwing error opened the door for the Pointers with the first run scoring on the play. With two away, Otto ripped a double to the right-center wall to tie the game at 3-3.
Neither team scored in the seventh or the eighth. In the ninth, the Falcons plated two runs and Tkach returned to the circle to strand the bases loaded.
Van Beek singled with one away in the bottom of the ninth to put runners on the corners. Otto came through with an RBI groundout to get UWSP within one. A walk by
Maddie Candre (St. Charles, Ill./East) put two aboard, but both were stranded to end the game.
Game 2 – UWSP 1, Edgewood 0
Zygowski was dealing early for the Pointers with three strikeouts on 12 pitches in the first inning. She struck out the side again in the second, stranding two on base.
With one away in the third, Baker laced a solo home run to center for a 1-0 UWSP lead.
That's all the offense Zygowski and Tkach needed. Zygowski retired the side in order in the third. She faced just three batters in the fourth as UWSP turned a nifty inning-ending double play.
Zygowski struck out two more in the fifth inning in a 1-2-3 frame to bring her total to nine strikeouts over 5.0 in her debut in the circle.
Tkach took over in the sixth and gave up just one hit over the final 2.0 frames to pick up the save.
The Pointers face Ripon and 11:00 a.m. and Marian at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday (Feb. 26) to wrap up the opening weekend of play.
