By: Kaylee Darnell
Sports Editor
With spring officially in the air, the IU South Bend softball team has hit the ground running for their season. The Titans traveled to Melbourne, Fla. during spring break to take part in 10 games during their trip.
On the first day of games, the Titans faced Concordia University in an eight-inning game, and were held with no runs until the fifth inning when Dani Gebhart scored on an error from Concordia on an at-bat from Kaylee Darnell, who then scored that same inning on a single from Kaitlynne Allen. The game stayed 2-2 and went into an eighth inning, where Concordia ultimately ended up pushing a runner across the plate, defeating the Titans with a score of 2-3.
The same day, the Titans took on West Virginia University Institute of Technology (WVU) and scored early in the first inning on a sac fly from Jozie Ramer, scoring Darnell. WVU then suffered an error on an at-bat from Maddy Edwards, which helped push Olivia Zarantonello across the plate. The Titans took their first win of the trip 8-4, also granting Edwards a win in the circle.
The second day of the trip, the Titans faced Missouri Baptist University (MBU) and suffered a 3-10 loss. All three runs were scored in the third inning, happening on an error from MBU on an at-bat from Edwards scoring Darnell, a single from Jaela Patton scoring Ramer, and a single from Gebhart scoring Edwards.
Following the loss, they then faced Dallas Christian College and took a 7-2 win with 15 hits overall. Runs were pushed across the plate from Darnell and Zarantonello in the third, Darnell and Ramer in the fifth, and Ramer, Patton and Abigail Yarnell in the seventh.
On their third day of the trip, the Titans took a win against Montreat College, giving Yarnell the win in the circle. The game was held at zero until the sixth inning, when a single from Maddie Leisher scored Ramer, and then a triple from Allen scored Darnell and Jordan Watts. Montreat came back in the bottom of the fourth and was able to push one run across but nothing more, giving IU South Bend a 4-1 win.
Following the win, the Titans took on William Penn University (WPU) in an eight-inning game. WPU took an early lead in the first 0-1, but the Titans were able to score two on a double from Watts scoring Edwards and Leisher. Losing the lead again in the third, the Titans evened the score 3-3 in the top of the fifth on a throwing error. Both teams then held the score throughout the game until WPU pushed the go ahead run across the plate in the bottom of the eighth to beat the Titans 3-4.
The fourth day brought the most runs from IU South Bend throughout the entire trip. In their first game, they took on Indiana Tech and were down early in the first inning 0-5 until the third inning, when the Titans were able to begin their comeback on a sac fly from Patton scoring Darnell. Then in the fifth inning, Darnell hit a home run, scoring herself and Zarantonello. Then on a hit from Edwards, Ramer scored, making the score 4-5. In the bottom of the seventh, Indiana Tech pushed across three runs but came up short, giving IU South Bend the win 11-8 and Yarnell the win in the circle.
The Titans then faced another IU team, taking on IUPUC and winning the game 13-0. Throughout the game, the score was held even at zero until the fifth inning, when the Titans pushed across seven runs, and in the sixth inning when six more runs crossed the plate. Ten players saw the field during the game, and each were able to cross the plate at least once, with Allen, Leisher, and Yarnell scoring twice.
In their final day of play the Titans faced Aquinas College but suffered a 1-2 loss. The only Titan run was from Zarantonello who scored on a single from Albright in the sixth.
Looking up from their loss, the Titans faced Hannibal-LaGrange University in their final game and won the game in five innings with a score 8-0.
After their final win in Florida, the titans finished with a 6-4 record and had a conference play on March 28 against Saint Xavier University.
For any information regarding softball or athletics at IU South Bend, visit IUSBTitans.com for season schedules and more.
