Final Stats

Game One PDF Box
Game Two PDF Box


GREENVILLE, S.C. - A career-best 14 strikeouts from Savannah Jo Dorsey (Grove City, Ohio) powered the Ohio softball team (6-2) to a decisive 4-0 shutout of the Furman Paladins (7-8) before her relief efforts aided a 3-2 walk off rally over Virginia (5-9) on the second day of the Spartan Classic.

AGAINST FURMAN
Just as they did in their first two games of the weekend, the Bobcats came out swinging and went up early. After a fielder’s choice put Casie Hutchinson (Lebanon, Ohio) on first, Madison Claytor (Alpharetta, Ga.) laced a looping line drive down the left field line before it landed on top of the fence and continued over for a home run to make it 2-0 in the first inning.

“We came out of the jump scoring some runs,” said Claytor, “My biggest focus lately has just been trying to advance the runner, and luckily I was able to do that.” 

After two strikeouts from Dorsey in the bottom of the first, Ohio’s offense came back out and continued to have their way with the Furman defense. With two outs in the frame, Michaela Dorsey (Grove City, Ohio) singled up the left side, Deanna Cole (Akron, Ohio) singled to second, and Taylor Saxton (Circleville, Ohio) set a bunt on the third base line to load the bases. With three runners aboard, Hutchinson drew a walk to bring Dorsey around and make it 3-0 Ohio before the third out.

Dorsey continued her dominant performance, allowing just one walk through the first three innings before giving up a single to Hannah Reynolds in the fourth. Pinch running for Reynolds, Sarah Windham stole second, but two more outs nullified the threat from the Paladins.

After facing the minimum in the fifth and sixth innings, Dorsey hit the second batter of the seventh inning to put a runner on for Furman, but closed out strong with her 13^th and 14^th strikeouts of the day to tie and then set a new career mark.

“[Scoring early] allows you to pitch a little freer,” explained Dorsey, “I like having the runs at the beginning. It makes you feel like the team’s ready to play.”

For Ohio offensively, the team racked up 10 hits, two walks, and forced one error. Saxton paced the Bobcats with three hits, Michaela Dorsey contributed two, and Cole, Natalie Alvarez (Long Beach, Calif.), Hutchinson, Mikayla Cooper (Delaware, Ohio), and Amanda Dalton (Salem, Va.) each added one of their own. Additionally, Cooper and Dalton each had a stolen base to their credit.

AGAINST VIRGINIA
For the first three innings, both offenses were subdued by each team’s starting pitcher. Virginia’s Erika Osherow allowed two hits, while Ohio’s Danielle Stiene (Loveland, Ohio) gave up three walks.

In the top of the fourth, however, the Cavaliers’ bats sprung to life. After Katie Park hit a leadoff double, a two-run homer off the bat of Kaitlin Fitzgerald put Ohio in a 2-0 hole. Following the play, Savannah Jo Dorsey replaced Stiene in the circle, and finished the inning by forcing a pop out.

In the bottom of the inning, A leadoff single from Claytor allowed her to take second on a groundout by Cooper before she bolted for third on a wild pitch. Samantha Bowlsbey’s (Farmingdale, N.J.) groundout to the shortstop brought Claytor in to score and close the gap to one run.

Two innings later, Ohio’s offense got back at it, starting with a single from Hutchinson to lead things off. MacKenzie Brunswick (Bellfontain, Ohio) entered to pinch run in Hutchinson’s place, and on a sacrifice bunt from Claytor, motored around second and slid safely into third. From there, Cooper sent a line drive into deep right field, which glanced off the fielder’s glove, scoring Brunswick to tie the game and planting herself on three.

In the seventh, Dorsey struck out the side to keep the score level, giving the Bobcats a chance to win it before extra innings. Walker’s leadoff single to second base started things off for Ohio, before Cole hit into a fielder’s choice to take over on the bases with two outs. Following two successful steals of second and third, Saxton put a bunt down in front of the third baseman, but beat out the throw to first as Cole crossed the plate to clinch the comeback victory for the Bobcats.

“My role is just to get on base and the team’s job is to just move me around,” explained Cole, “I just want to be able to thank everybody who takes a strike for me or puts the ball in play to move me because it’s so appreciated, everybody does their job without complaint on this team, and that’s why I love it so much.”

In regards to facing Virginia again after a tough 8-7 loss last night, Saxton stated, “I knew in that second game that we wanted revenge on Virginia. We wanted it really bad because we knew that last night we had it, and everything seemed to go their way last night, and we couldn’t get anything to go ours, so the same thing kind of happened today. We had a lot of opportunities and a lot of hard hits, and we knew eventually they were going to fall.”

She added, “This team just has a lot of fight and this game was a representation of that. It was a ton of fun.”

With two hits each from Saxton, Hutchinson, and Walker, plus another by Claytor, Ohio totaled seven for the game, while Cole burned the Cavaliers for three stolen bases.

“My mindset is that it’s always a race between me and the catcher,” Cole said, “And I’m always going to win, she’s never going to beat me.”

From the circle, Stiene’s 3.1 innings yielded two runs (both earned) on two hits and three walks with two strikeouts to her credit. In 3.2 innings, Dorsey didn’t surrender a single hit, and only allowed one base runner on a walk while fanning nine.

The Bobcats wrap up play at the Spartan Classic tomorrow (Feb. 28) when they take on Virginia Tech at 11 a.m. 

#BleedGreen