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Box Score 2 Wilmington, OH – The hot streak continued for the Transylvania softball team as they picked up their 11th and 12th straight victories with a sweep of the Wilmington Quakers at the WC Baseball Complex on Monday.
The Pioneers fought back from an early deficit to take Game One, 6-3, then finished an offensive blitz of the Quakers in Game Two to win the nightcap by a score of 18 to 4.
Freshman outfielder Shelbi Poehlein had an outstanding day for the Pioneers, hitting 7-for-8 in both games with two home runs, one per game. Poehlein also delivered four RBIs between both games, and also drew a walk in her perfect Game Two performance.
Wilmington opened up Game One comfortable at home with a singular run in the second inning before Transylvania got going offensively in the fourth inning. Brittany Mumford led off the inning with a game-tying solo home run to left field, before Krista DeBurger was hit by a pitch to reach base. Poehlein delivered a single to move DeBurger to second, while a two RBI double by Jessica Powell scored DeBurger and Poehlein to give Transylvania a lead they would never again yield.
The Pioneers doubled their run total in the top of the fifth inning as DeBurger, the recently crowned Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference player of the week, homered for the fifth time in five games. Following a Meg Liter single, Poehlein stepped up and delivered a home run shot to center field, her first of the day to hand Transylvania a 6-2 lead.
Liter took care of matters over the first five innings, allowing one earned run and three strikeouts, while issuing no walks. Freshman Jenna Stiles came in for the last two innings to register four strikeouts to six batters as she collected her second save of the season.
As they have during their torrid stretch of 12 straight wins, the Pioneers saved a big power punch for the tail end of their doubleheader. After the Quakers opened up the game with a first inning run, the Pioneers tacked on three runs in the top of the second inning, again securing a lead they would own for the rest of the night.
Transylvania built their second inning lead by way of a Shelbi Poehlein walk, and some help from senior Katie Hulsman who moved the freshman to third base with a single into left field. The Pioneers took advantage of a catcher's throwing error as Poehlein came home to tie it at 1-1, and a Stiles groundout scored Hulsman from third for the 2-1 lead. Madison Dorsey later lasered an RBI single into left field that scored Jordan Kramer for a 3-1 Transy advantage.
Hitting and scoring remained contagious for Transylvania in the third and fourth innings as they posted two and four more runs, respectively in each frame. The Pioneers took advantage of a bases-loaded infield error to tally two runs in the third inning. Then in the fourth inning, Transylvania enjoyed a case of déjà vu from Game One: After DeBurger hit an RBI double, Liter drew a walk to bring Poehlein to the plate. Poehlein blasted her second home run of the day, this time to the left field wall to raise Transylvania's lead to 9-2 after the fourth.
As Katie Hulsman and Tayler Thompson teamed up to retire the first three innings' worth of Wilmington batters, Lutes came in to work what would be the final three innings of the game, picking up the save.
While the Pioneers were cruising to the finish line needing just one more run to bring the game to an early conclusion, they saved a big nine-run explosion for the sixth inning to subdue Wilmington .
The Pioneers used a Poehlein single, her third hit of the game to lead off the inning and Hulsman was walked. After a pop fly for one out, the Quakers then walked the next two consecutive Transylvania batters to score Poehlein for a 10-2 lead. From there, the issues continued for Wilmington as the next batter Dorsey was hit by a pitch to score another Pioneer baserunner.
With two outs in the inning, the Pioneers hits four base hits in their next five at-bats which included an outfield error that resulted in seven more runs. The Quakers responded with two runs in the bottom of the sixth but the damage had been done, and Transylvania clinched their 12th straight win.
The Pioneers improved to 23-10 overall as they continued their refining process. Transylvania returns to action on Thursday as they visit Hanover for a doubleheader. The Pioneers have four games remaining in their regular season slate, all against HCAC competition. Transylvania remains one game ahead of Anderson, their final opponent of the regular season for first place in the HCAC standings.
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