The Golden Hawks women's softball team wrapped up its regular season with a homestand, hosting doubleheaders versus Brock and Windsor.
On Saturday, as they took on Brock, the team wore pink for their annual Pink in the Park day in support of those dealing with cancer. Following the game, a donation was made to the Laurier Relay for Life, whose chair,
Olivia Shaddick, is a catcher for the team.
Laurier jumped out to an early 2-0 lead versus Brock in game one on a Maddie Halstead triple, driving in Zoe Ramkalawan and Jules Merritt who had singled. That lead held until the sixth inning when Brock capitalized on a pair of Laurier errors and two walks to take a 3-2 lead. The Golden Hawks would tie the game in the bottom of the seventh and send it to extra innings. In the bottom of the eighth, a Honee Anderson walk followed by singles from Ramkalawan and Merritt gave the Golden Hawks the win. Pitcher Emily Cox went the distance for Laurier and recorded 19 strikeouts in the game to set a new program record.
In game two, Laurier again took the early lead, going up 1-0 in the third inning. Brock and Laurier would trade single runs in each of the next innings until the score was tied at 2-2. The Golden Hawks' bats came alive in the top of the seventh when a Courtney Cuillerier double was followed by singles from Ramkalawan, Halstead,
Hayley Shackell and Kendall Rainey to open up a 6-2 Laurier lead. Brock put up a fight in the bottom of the frame, scoring two runs to cut the lead, but reliever
Emma Diegel induced a flyout to end the threat.
Sunday was Senior Day as the team recognized the contributions of its four retiring seniors and took on the Windsor Lancers:
Olivia Shaddick and
Hayley Shackell, both Health Science majors;
Emma Diegel, a Kinesiology major; and Emily Cox, a post-graduate student in Accounting.
The pitching was strong through the early innings as starter Shackell and the Windsor pitcher kept the game scoreless through four innings. In the fifth, a string of Lancer singles would combine with a Laurier error to give Windsor a 4-0 lead. Laurier would counter with a run in the bottom of the sixth on a
Lauren Artt single, but it was not enough as Windsor went on to a 7-1 victory.
In game two, the Laurier bats were much more evident with an Olivia Faulhafer double, opening the scoring in the second inning. An Artt triple would drive in two more runs to put Laurier up 3-0. The runs continued the following inning as a lead-off walk to
Amy Hughes followed by singles from Halstead and Abby Cooper combined with a Lancer error, to widen the lead to 7-0. Starter Emily Cox went the distance, recording 10 strikeouts, only giving up two hits in a 9-0 shutout victory.
The victory over Windsor secured second spot in the western conference for Laurier who finished the regular season with a 13-7 record. They will face Ottawa, the third seed from the east, at the provincial championships in Innerkip on October 18th and 19th.
Prior to the provincials, the team heads to Calgary for the Canadian Collegiate Softball Championships as one of the eight top teams in the country. The games get underway on October 10th, as they are scheduled to take on the University of Saskatchewan, the University of Calgary, and Durham College.
Help support the team this year through its
Adopt-A-Hawk program.
