CALEDONIA, Mich. - Looking for its first GLIAC sweep since the 2019 season, the Davenport softball team found it on Sunday afternoon against Ferris State. The Panthers walked it off in game one, 3-2, and led wire to wire in the rematch for the 6-3 victory. Next up on the schedule, Davenport's 12-game homestand continues on Wednesday with Wayne State in town and first pitch in game one is set for 3:30 p.m. at The Farm.

With the two wins, Davenport improves to 11-14 overall and 7-6 in the GLIAC while Ferris State falls to 9-10 on the season and 2-7 in league action.

Offensively, Davenport racked up 10 hits in game one before 12 more in the nightcap, the first back-to-back stretch of the season with 10 or more hits. Pitching wise, the Panthers lowered their team ERA to 4.05 and have given up three earned runs or less in four of the last five games and five of the last seven.

In game one, Davenport scored first in the first inning when head coach, Amber Bowman, put on the squeeze for Rachel Griffin who bunted it back to the pitcher allowing Gabby Palazzolo to score from third. Ferris State tied the score up at 1-1 in the second before the Panthers came right back in the third with an RBI single from Mariah Cura that brought in Griffin. The Bulldogs would tie it up for a final time in the fourth with an RBI single before Griffin's game-winning RBI single that pushed across Palazzolo to win it for the home team in the bottom of the seventh.

Emma Miller (5-5) was brilliant again with a complete-game performance in which she gave up just two runs, one earned, on three hits with three walks and four strikeouts. That makes it four-consecutive appearances and five of the last six in which Miller has surrendered two earned runs or less. With that stretch, Miller has lowered her season ERA to 2.91, a mark that is good for 11th in the GLIAC.

In game two, Davenport was first on the board again as Lindsay Goodman singled in both Cura and Alexis Koza in the first before Goodman hit a solo homerun to center in the third to make it 3-0. In the fourth, Ferris State cut the deficit to one, 3-2, with a two-run shot of its own, but the Panthers would have another answer. In the home half of that fourth frame, Koza singled right back up the middle to score Taylor Simon and make it 4-2. The Bulldogs scored their third and final run in the sixth with a sacrifice fly to right, but Griffin added two insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth thanks to a two-run triple to right.

Simon (2-2) turned in quite the performance with her first complete game of the season as she allowed three earned runs on three hits with only one free pass and three punchouts. It didn't stop there though as she went 2-for-3 at the dish with two runs scored and the first multi-hit game of her career.

Story by: Cooper Weidenthaler