The Golden Hawks women's softball team continued an extended home stand into the third week of the Ontario University Softball season. This weekend's matchups featured inter-division games with Brock and McMaster, two teams also vying for playoff spots.
Saturday's first game at Waterloo Park was against the Brock Badgers. Laurier managed a split with Brock last season, however, Brock has held the recent edge winning 7 of the previous 10 contests.
Brock jumped to a quick lead in the first game, scoring 3 runs in the top of the second off starter
Brooke Cameron. The Golden Hawks would climb back to within 1 run with 2 runs of their own in the bottom of the third inning.
A series of base hits by
Hayley Shackell,
Avery Hilpert,
Olivia Salese, and
Amy Hughes in the bottom of the 5th inning would produce 3 Laurier runs to give them a 5-3 lead.
Shackell came in as relief pitching for the final 3 innings yielding just 2 hits and no runs against to earn the win for the Golden Hawks.
The second game would also see Brock taking an early lead on a series of walks and base hits, scoring in each of the first 3 innings. First-year Lauren Artt started the game but as in the first game was relieved by Shackell.
The Laurier bats were quiet for the first three innings before a Maddy Halstead double would score
Natalie Donelle to get the Golden Hawks on the board. A triple by Artt and a sacrifice by
Skylar Smith would pull Laurier to within 1, down 3-4.
Brock would answer back with two quick runs in the bottom of the 4th to move ahead 6-3. An inside-the-park home run for shortstop
Amy Hughes would cut the lead to 6-4 and then in the top of the 6th, a 2-run triple by Hilpert would tie the score. An additional 2 runs for the Golden Hawks would put them ahead 8-6 and a game-ending, unassisted double play by Hughes would give Laurier its 9th victory.
Sunday, Laurier returned to Waterloo Park to take on visiting McMaster, another team in the hunt for a playoff spot. Laurier came into the game riding an eight-game winning streak against the Marauders.
Both teams came out swinging. Four hits off starter
Brooke Cameron would give McMaster an earlier 1-0 lead. Laurier would counter back quickly scoring 2 runs of its own off singles from Cameron,
Emma Diegel, and Maddy Halstead to take back the lead 2-1.
A
Skylar Smith single followed by hits from Hilpert and Shackell in the bottom of the second would result in 3 runs and an early 6-2 lead. Laurier would add 2 more runs in the 5th on a two-RBI double from Diegel and would survive a 7th inning rally by Brock who scored 3, holding on for a 9-6 victory.
The second game against McMaster was dominated by a 1-hit performance from Shackell working with catcher
Olivia Shaddick and 13 hits from the Laurier offense including a second inside-the-park home run for Hughes. The final was 10-0 in 4 innings.
With these wins, Laurier moves into first place overall in the OUS with an 11-1 record and qualifies for spot in the OUS Championships on October 19th and October 20th in Napanee, hosted by Queen's.
