CALEDONIA, Mich. - For just the second time since joining the GLIAC prior to the 2018 season, the Davenport University softball team has won its first two league games of the spring. Saturday, playing for the first time in two weeks, the Panthers hosted Northwood and made quick work of the Timberwovles thanks to scores of 6-1 and 7-1. Next up, DU will host Ferris State for a doubleheader on Sunday with the first pitch in game one scheduled for 1 p.m. at The Farm.
Davenport moved above the .500 mark overall for the second time this season (5-4 on March 1) at 10-8 while Northwood (14-6, 0-2 GLIAC) had its eight-game winning streak snapped. The Timberwolves came into this series with the fourth-best ERA in all of Division II (rose from 1.35 to 1.87) and ended up surrendering a total of 13 runs, 11 of which were earned, on 23 hits to the Panthers. DU now leads the all-time series with NU by six, 13-7, and has won four of the last five meetings between the two teams.
Northwood's game-one starter, Shayna Frank (8-3), boasted the best ERA in the country at 0.43 coming in and gave up more than two earned runs in a start for the first time this season. In four innings pitched on Saturday, Frank allowed six runs, five earned, on eight hits with three walks and four strikeouts. Emily Cox handled the final two frames for the Timberwolves, but the game was already decided by that point.
In the circle for Davenport,
Emma Miller (6-3) went the distance for the ninth time in as many starts without an earned run to her name to drop her season ERA to 1.30, the fifth-best clip in the GLIAC. Miller allowed just four hits without a single free pass (third-straight outing and fifth this season) and three punchouts. Aside from the one run Northwood scored, the visitors advanced a runner to third just once and went three up, three down in both the fifth and seventh innings.
Offensively, five of the Panthers' six runs came via the long ball in the fifth thanks to a three-run home run from
Alexis Koza (pictured) and a two-run blast by Miller just two batters later. The home team's sixth and final run came across in the first when
Rylie Kalina reached first on a fielding error by the second baseman and
Riley Hasseld touched the plate.
In the nightcap,
Ellie Muilenburg (4-5) was nearly just as productive with the complete-game effort, her seventh in nine outings in 2022. Muilenburg surrendered just one earned run on three hits with four walks and seven strikeouts. That effort marks the fifth time this season and third-straight game in which the right-hander has recorded seven or more punchouts.
At the dish, Davenport's 14 hits are tied for the most in GLIAC play since 2019 and unlike the first game, only two of the team's seven runs came in after an extra-base hit. Five different Panthers had a multi-hit game including
Gabby Palazzolo (3-4), Koza (3-4), Kalina (2-4), Muilenburg (2-4), and
Monica Meger (2-3).
Story by:
Cooper Weidenthaler
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