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Box Score 2 ANDERSON, IND. – A furious rally in the home half of the seventh left Manchester University just shy of staying alive at the 2015 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships Friday, May 1.
Coming back from a 6-1 loss to second-seeded Bluffton University in their opening contest at Raven Softball Field, MU (16-17), the tournament's third seed, did their level best to extend their stay to another day.
The Spartans quickly answered a 2-0 deficit in the first versus fourth-seeded Hanover when freshman second baseman Laurren Ladwig (Crown Point, Ind.) resumed her remarkable freshman campaign with home run number 10 in the bottom of the first for a 2-2 tie. After the Panthers pushed across five runs in the top of the fifth for an 8-2 edge, enter the Black and Gold offense again.
With one more attempt at the dish, the Black and Gold responded, as Ladwig blasted a three-run home run, her second of the contest and 11th of the season, to cut the margin to 8-5. The comeback was on the verge of becoming even bigger, as the home side got runners to second and third, still with no one out due to a walk to junior catcher Kaile Niezgodski (South Bend, Ind.) and a double from junior first baseman MacKenzie Williams (Kendallville, Ind.) and then loaded the sacks with only one out. Sophomore Emilee Liston (Cicero, Ind.) came off the bench and drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to make the count 8-6, but a strikeout ended the rally one batter later.
Williams led a group of four players with multiple-hit outings, as she had four, which included a solo home run in the top of the seventh against BU. Ladwig, with her two round trippers and five RBIs; freshman outfielder Mikayla Deisler (Goshen, Ind.); and senior shortstop Emily Willmann (Montpelier, Ind.) added two hits each.
NOTES: Ladwig's 11 home runs were the most in a season for an MU player since Niezgodski deposited 11 opposing pitches over fences in 2013 … Nash's 12 pitching victories are the most for a Spartans' hurler since former all-conference standout Maureen Lund recorded the same number in 2013 … MU made its fourth conference tournament appearance in the past six seasons.
