Griffins split games as Leonard pitches first shutout of the year

Clermont, Fla. - Fontbonne softball split games today, falling in the eighth inning to UW-Steven's Point and beating UW-Whitewater 2-0. The Griffins are now 3-8 on the season.

Steven's Point

After trailing 2-0, Fontbonne took a 3-2 lead in the fifth. Emelia Modglin and Sarah Kitchen both singled. Courtney Kedroski went for the sacrifice bunt but beat the throw when Modglin scored on a throwing error and Kayla Winkler, who pinch ran for Kitchen, scored as well. Kedroski stole second and advanced to third on a error and scored on a sac fly from Diamond Thomas. In the fifth Emily Smith's sac fly scored Maddie Cooksey who tripled.

The Griffins held the 4-2 lead when they opened the seventh with a fielding error and immediately had a pitching change. A hit by pitch, walk, two singles and two Pointer runs later, Fontbonne starting pitcher Michelle Boyer re-entered the circle. Three more singles gave Stevens's Point a 7-4 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh. 

In a do or die situation, the Griffins clawed back to tie the game to send into extra innings. Kedroski led off with a walk and stopped at second on a single to right by Alleigh Kruse. Diamond Thomas bunted to the pitcher and beat the wild throw that allowed Kedroski to score. Thomas stole second before Sam Brown walked to load the bases with zero outs. Two outs later and Lindsay Schaefer walked in Kruse to pull within one. Modglin singled to right to tie the game but the Griffins tried to end the game and were thrown out at home.

The Griffin defense got two outs quickly but a single to left scored the ledoff runner placed on second. The ensuing plays forced Boyer to stay on the mound longer than usual as the Griffins committed an error to prolong the inning followed by three singles another error and a walk that gave Steven's Point a 12-7 lead before Boyer struck out the final batter. 

The Griffins stranded two on the corners in their bottom half of the inning that ended the game.

Whitewater

Fontbonne rebounded after a couple of hours in a pitcher's dual where Madi Leonard struck out 11 in her first complete-game shutout of the season. The Griffins finally got on the scoreboard in the fifth inning when the Griffins came on the good side of several Whitewater errors. Alleigh Kruse reached on an error to lead off and came home when Schaefer lined out to second. The second baseman tried to toss the ball to the shortstop at second to catch Emily Smith diving back to the bag when Kruse came home on the throwing error.

The Griffins added an insurance run in the sixth after Kruse got on base. Thomas pinch ran and stole second and went to third after Brown hit down the right field line. Thomas crossed the plate after Cooksey singled to left center.

Whitewater threatened with a leadoff triple but after a flyout to center Leonard struck out the the next two batters to end the inning and get the win.

Freshman Melanie Russo almost hit her second home run in as many days when she hit to center but the ball hit the top piping on the wall and fell back into the park.

Fontbonne ends play in Florida tomorrow with games at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m.