GREENVILLE, Ill. -- Ripon dropped both games of a road doubleheader at Greenville on Tuesday, falling 12-4 in six innings in game one before coming up short 7-5 in game two.
Greenville set the tone early in the opener, plating three runs in the second inning and adding three more in the third to quickly build a 6-0 lead. The Panthers continued to apply pressure with multi-run innings in the fourth, fifth, and sixth, finishing with 17 hits in the run-rule win.
Ripon broke through in the fifth with a four-run inning, capitalizing on aggressive baserunning and a pair of Greenville errors. Senior Jayden Markus (Sorento, Ill., Greenville HS) scored on a wild pitch to get the Red Hawks on the board, while freshman Presley Koss (Palmyra, Wis., Palmyra-Eagle HS) added a stolen base and later came around to score. Freshmen Carli Moldenhauer (Oconomowoc, Wis., Oconomowoc HS) and Callissa Keller (La Valle, Wis., Wonewoc-Center HS) each drove in runs
during the frame, but the deficit proved too large to overcome.
In game two, Ripon responded with one of its strongest offensive stretches of the day. Junior Nadiyah Huizar (Buena Park, Calif., Buena Park HS) put the Red Hawks ahead in the second with an RBI single, and the lineup erupted for four more runs in the third. Freshman Desirae Kallstrom (DeForest, Wis., DeForest HS) delivered the big swing with a three-run triple to right center, and sophomore Maddie Heisler (Appleton, Wis., Appleton East HS) followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 5-0.
Greenville answered immediately in the bottom half of the third, highlighted by a grand slam that erased Ripon's lead and tied the game at 5-5. The Panthers later took the lead in the sixth, scoring twice with the help of a Ripon error and an RBI double.
Kallstrom led the Red Hawks in game two, going 2-for-3 with three RBIs and two runs scored, while Huizar and Moldenhauer also contributed hits. Ripon was limited to just one hit over the final four innings as Greenville's bullpen shut the door.
Ripon will look to bounce back in its next outing with a conference doubleheader at Lawrence University, scheduled to begin at 1pm.
