The 10th-ranked Case Western Reserve University softball team captured its third consecutive University Athletic Association Championship with a doubleheader sweep over Carnegie Mellon University on Saturday at Mather Park in Cleveland, defeating CMU 12-3 in game one and 9-0 in game two with both contests lasting five innings.
The Spartans improved to 31-5 on the season and 16-3 in conference play, while the Tartans fell to 15-18 overall and 8-11 in the UAA. Leading second-place WashU by one and half games entering play on Saturday, CWRU needed two wins and a loss by the Bears to clinch the outright championship. With a loss by WashU in the second game of its doubleheader against Emory, the doubleheader sweep clinched the third consecutive conference championship for the Spartans. CWRU also won three consecutive UAA titles from 1997-99, and the team was a tri-champion in 2015.
Sophomore Elizabeth Berry and senior KaiLi Gross each collected six runs batted in across the two games, and junior Isabella Russo drove in five runs in the second game. Russo, Gross, and senior Kaila Nutter all hit home runs in the doubleheader.
Game 1: #10 CWRU 12, Carnegie Mellon 3 (5 inn.)
The Tartans loaded the bases in the first inning, but junior pitcher Kylie Hosey induced a flyout to keep the visitors off the board.
In the bottom of the frame, CWRU scored a pair of runs to take the lead. With two runners in scoring position, Berry delivered a run-scoring single to break the deadlock. She then stole second, and Gross scored from third on the throw.
The Spartans added four more runs in the next inning. Gross drew a bases loaded walk for the first run, and senior Stevie Rieger brought in a run with a sacrifice fly. Berry then drove in her second and third runs of the game with a single to make the score 6-0.
CMU scored in the next frame, plating a run on a one-out double.
Gross slugged her second career grand slam in the third inning, putting the Spartans up nine. The home run, her team-leading seventh of the season and the 21st of her career, followed three consecutive Spartan walks.
Nutter hit her second home run in as many games in the following frame, extending the Spartan lead to 11. It was her second roundtripper of the season and the second of her career.
Hosey earned the win in the circle to improve to 12-1 on the season. She pitched three innings, allowing one run on three hits while striking out two. Sophomore Devanghi Misra completed the game, giving up two runs on one hit with two strikeouts.
Game 2: #10 CWRU 9, Carnegie Mellon 0 (5 inn.)
After the first three batters reached for CWRU, Berry drove in a pair of runs with a double to open the scoring. Junior Isabella Russo followed with a three-run home run, her first of the season, to make the score 5-0 after just five batters stepped to the plate.
Gross extended the lead with a run-scoring double and crossed the plate on a sacrifice fly by Berry to make the score 7-0. Russo added a run with a double, collecting her fourth run batted in within the first two innings, and set a career high with her fifth RBI in the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly to put the Spartans up nine.
The Tartans were held scoreless in the fifth inning to wrap up the doubleheader.
Junior Lexi Miskey earned the win in the circle, throwing three shutout innings while allowing only one hit, to improve to 18-3. She struck out four to increase her season total to 160, the fourth most in program history, and career total to 526, five away from matching the program record. Senior Jenna Jaklich completed the shutout with two scoreless innings, allowing two hits while striking out two.
The shutout was the fifth of the season for the Spartan pitching staff and the team's second in conference play.
The Spartans and Tartans will conclude their series with a single game tomorrow, scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Prior to the contest, CWRU will celebrate its eight graduating members as part of Senior Day.
