BELOIT, Wisconsin – The Ripon softball program dropped two games at Beloit on Sunday, falling to the Buccaneers 12-2 in five innings and 10-4.
Beloit (9-29, 7-7 MWC) jumped all over Ripon (9-23, 6-8 MWC) in the opening innings of game one. The Buccaneers scored five runs in the first and five in the second to take a 10-0 lead, though
Arianna Alirez homered to lead off the third for Ripon.
Beloit got the run right back in the bottom of the third, but the Red Hawks answered in the top of the fourth. With two on and two out,
Jayden Markus scored
Ashlyn Schultz with an RBI single, though
Maddie Hablewitz was thrown out at third to end the frame.
The Bucs used the long ball in the fourth, pushing their lead to 12-2 on the back of a solo home run. Ripon went down in order in the fifth and dropped game one.
Four Red Hawks accounted for Ripon's four hits in the game: Schultz (1x2, run), Hablewitz (1x2), Markus (1x2, RBI) and Alirez (1x2, HR, RBI, run).
Alayna Sadowska took the loss in the circle. She went the distance, allowing nine hits and nine earned runs across 95 pitches.
Beloit scored a pair of two-out runs in the first inning of game two, but Ripon got a run back in the third on an RBI single by
Karissa Jenz. The Bucs doubled their lead in the third, and added two more runs in the fourth to make the score 5-1.
Kayla Cruz homered to lead off the fifth for Ripon as the Red Hawks trimmed their deficit. After back-to-back walks in the sixth,
Hadley Berendsen scored on a Beloit error as Ripon clawed within 5-3. Then,
Nadiyah Huizar doubled home Alirez to make it a one-score game. The Red Hawks had the go-ahead run on second, but a strikeout ended the rally.
Beloit got five much-needed insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth — all with two outs. Ripon couldn't convert in the seventh and dropped game two 10-4.
Cruz led Ripon offensively, going 2-for-3 with a home run. Jenz (1x3, walk), Schultz (1x4), Hablewitz (1x4),
Brooklyn Cooper (1x3, walk) and Huizar (1x3, RBI, run) also had base hits.
Cooper took the loss in the circle. She pitched all six innings, scattering 12 hits and eight earned runs across 121 pitches.
NEXT UP: Ripon hosts Maranatha Baptist on Friday, May 2 for a doubleheader beginning at 3 p.m.
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