Rio Grande Sports Information
RIO GRANDE, Ohio - For the University of Rio Grande softball team, Tuesday afternoon's non-conference twin bill against former River States Conference rival Ohio Christian University had to feel a bit like jamming to the Top 40 hits from the old country music super group Alabama.
How so, you might ask?
Madi Ogden was "Close Enough to Perfect" inside the pitcher's circle in game one and some shoddy defense in game two on the part of the Trailblazers left the RedStorm in "High Cotton".
Ogden came within one out of a perfect game in Rio's 3-0 opening game triumph, while four OCU errors precipitated five unearned runs for the RedStorm in a 9-1 mercy rule-shortened victory in game two of the doubleheader at Rio Softball Park.
Rio Grande pushed its season record to 37-9 with the sweep.
Ohio Christian dropped to 8-20 as a result of the sweep.
In the front end of Tuesday's doubleheader, Ogden - who threw Rio's first no-hitter in seven years last Thursday against Oakland City University - retired the first 20 batters she faced before OCU's Chandler Hayes dumped a clean single into shallow center field with two outs in the seventh inning.
Ogden, who also lost a perfect game bid in the seventh inning of a win over West Virginia University-Tech on March 18, rebounded with a strikeout of Lexi King - her career-high 17th strikeout of the contest - to end the game.
Offensively, the RedStorm did what they needed to do by scoring single runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings.
Sophomore Nigella Reck (Covington, OH) had a run-scoring single to plate the third inning run, Ogden had an RBI single in the fourth and freshman Lindzie Runions (Poca, WV) drove in the final run with an infield single in the fifth.
Ogden finished 3-for-4 in the win, while Reck was 2-for-4 with a double and junior Kayla Sedgwick (Richwood, OH) had a double of her own.
Lauryn Pate started and suffered the loss for Ohio Christian, allowing seven hits, four walks and two runs over 3-1/3 innings.
The game two victory saw Rio Grande score an unearned run in the second to take a lead it would never relinquish before tacking on two more unearned markers in a three-run third inning for a 4-0 lead.
The Trailblazers pushed across their lone run in the top of the fourth on a single by Olivia Kelley, but the RedStorm responded with four more runs - two of which were unearned - in the home fourth to push the lead to 8-1.
A run-scoring single by freshman Delana Landefeld (Williamsport, OH) in the bottom of the fifth put the eight-run mercy rule into effect.
Landefeld finished 3-for-3 with a double in the win.
Junior Gabby Adams (Grove City, OH) doubled and drove in a run for Rio, while Sedgwick and sophomore Maddie Engler (Crestline, OH) also drove in one run each.
Junior Meg McCallum (Belmont, Ontario, Canada) went the distance in the pitcher's circle to get her sixth win in eight decisions, allowing eight hits and the one run over five innings. She walked one and fanned four.
Emma Hastings also went the distance in the circle and took the loss for the Trailblazers.
King had three hits, including a double, in a losing cause for OCU.
Rio Grande was originally scheduled to return to action on Friday with a home date against Indiana University Columbus.
However, due to the forecast of inclement weather, the meeting with the Crimson Pride has been shifted to Sunday at 1 p.m.
The RedStorm's next outing will now come on Saturday when St. Mary-of-the-Woods pays a visit for a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.
