By: Stephen Wagner
CLEARWATER, Fla. (GreenBayPhoenix.com) – The Green Bay softball team (3-8) continued the Michele Smith Spring Break Tournament today, matching up with Western Michigan (5-11) and South Florida (24-8) on the second day of play. It was a tale of two games for the Phoenix, downing the Broncos 8-0 in five innings of play and falling to South Florida 11-0 to give the bulls their 16th-straight victory.
Green Bay 8, Western Michigan 0 (5 Innings)
It didn't take long for the Phoenix to get on the board in the first game of the day, jumping out to a 3-0 first-inning lead over Western Michigan. The lead was built up by a series of four hits, three of which collected RBIs, from Abby Brinkmeier, Jaclyn Delagrange, Allie Taylor and Miranda Spangberg.
Briana Cavin was completely dialed in against the Broncos, sitting the first three batters down in succession the first two innings. Cavin allowed two hits in the third inning, leading to Western Michigan having a base runner on third base with two outs remaining in the inning. However, the Broncos would strand the runner on third after Cavin ended the inning with a strikeout and ground out to third base. Cavin held Western Michigan scoreless in her five innings in the circle, fanned four batters and only allowed four hits.
The Phoenix put the game away in the fifth inning, scoring five runs to enforce the eight-run rule to rout the Broncos. Hailee Frey got things rolling for the Phoenix in the final inning, nailing a line drive into right field and legging it out for a triple. With Frey standing on third and no outs in the inning, Hailey Mohrfeld stepped up to the plate and singled to left to score Frey. Following Mohrfeld's single, Katelyn Huemmer laid down a bunt and beat out the throw for a single of her own to give the Phoenix two base runners with no outs. Abby Brinkmeier took advantage of Mohrfeld standing on third, hitting a sacrifice ground ball to the shortstop to score Mohrfeld and pick up the RBI. The next Phoenix at-bat went to Delagrange, with the freshman knocking a single into center field to score Huemmer. Alyssa Johnson took the final at-bat for the Phoenix, sending a line drive over the center fielder's head for a triple to score Delagrange and Taylor and locking up the 8-0 win for the Phoenix.
Mohrfeld finished the game 3-for-3 with an RBI, Johnson finished 1-for-3 at the plate with two RBIs and Delagrange finished the contest with two hits in three at-bats, collecting a pair of RBIs.
South Florida 11, Green Bay 0 (5 Innings)
The Phoenix faced a tough South Florida team in its second match of the day. The Bulls entered the matchup with the Phoenix on a 15-game winning streak.
The Bulls wasted no time getting their offense going, scoring five runs in the first inning on their way to picking up their 16th consecutive victory. USF's five-run cushion in the first inning came in large part to a three-run homer to left-center field from Veronica Gajownik.
Abby Brinkmeier and Allie Taylor picked up the only hits in the game for the Phoenix, with each of the ladies turning in a single to avoid the no-hitter.
Katie Rossman got the nod to start against the high-powered Bulls offense, spending 2.1 innings in the circle, giving up seven hits, four earned runs and picking up a strikeout.
Green Bay returns to action at 9 a.m. against Yale tomorrow followed by a matchup with St. Joes at 11:15 a.m. to end the tournament.
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