The 15th-ranked Case Western Reserve University softball team swept a non-conference doubleheader from Capital University on Thursday evening at Mather Park in Cleveland, defeating the visitors 8-0 in six innings in game one and 8-2 in game two.
The Spartans improved to 12-7 on the season, while the Comets fell to 7-9. The games marked the first of the 2025 campaign for CWRU at home.
Senior pitcher Lexi Miskey, who earned the win in the first contest, struck out a season-high 11 batters across five shutout innings. Offensively, Case Western Reserve totaled 20 hits across the two games with sophomore infielder Karen Potts collecting four.
Game 1: CWRU 8, Capital 0 (6 inn.)
After Miskey struck out the side to begin the day, senior catcher Katelyn Lamm drove in the first run of the game with a sacrifice fly in the first inning. Lamm drove in three runs during the contest and went three-for-five in the doubleheader.
After allowing a leadoff single in the second, Miskey retired the next 11 batters she faced, including seven with strikeouts, to keep the Comets off the basepaths. She allowed just one hit and one walk across her five innings of work, lowering her earned run average to 2.70.
Lamm drove in her second run of the game on a single in the third inning, plating graduate student infielder KaiLi Gross, and the Spartans added two more runs in the fifth on a Lamm double and groundout from sophomore infielder Kaelyn Zusi. With two outs in the sixth inning, Gross singled and promptly stole second base. After a walk, junior infielder Elizabeth Berry increased the lead to five with a run-scoring single. Sophomore outfielder Alaina Steffes then ended the game by run-rule by slugging a three-run homer to center field, her second of the season.
Lamm set a career high with three runs batted in. Berry, Gross, and Lamm each had two hits in the game, the team-leading 11th of the season for the graduate student infielder.
Game 2: CWRU 8, Capital 2
Lamm doubled to lead off the second inning of the nightcap, and the Spartans scored their first run on a throwing error in the frame.
The following inning, the Comets loaded the bases with just one out. However, senior pitcher Kylie Hosey and the CWRU defense worked out of the jam without allowing a run, throwing out a runner at home trying to steal and ending the frame with a groundout. Hosey (4-4) scattered seven hits across six innings, working out of danger in each inning, and allowed just one run with four strikeouts. She lowered her ERA to 4.14 with the performance.
The Spartans doubled their lead in the third inning on another Capital miscue, and Potts added a run in the fifth with a no-out single. Later in the inning, Gross hit her team-leading fifth home run of the season, making the score 4-0.
Capital scored in the sixth inning, but the hosts batted around to increase their lead to seven heading into the final frame. Following a run scoring on an error, first-year outfielder/pitcher Laura Meoli had her first collegiate hit, RBI, and home run, to make the score 7-1.
Potts drove in the eighth run of the game with a single, and Meoli closed the game out in the circle, allowing just one run in the final inning to secure the win in her collegiate pitching debut.
Potts matched a season high with three hits in the second game, with nine other Spartans reaching safely via a base hit.
CWRU will conclude its non-conference weekend with a visit from Denison on Sunday with a doubleheader scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
Spartan Notes
- The games were the first between the Spartans and Comets since 2003 when Capital won a single game 13-0
- CWRU improved to 51-6 at Mather Park since the start of the 2022 season
- Gross moved into a tie for second in program history with her 28th career home run. Former Spartan Annie Wennerberg holds the program record with 33 career round-trippers from 2014-17
- All 19 players on the 2025 roster appeared in the doubleheader
- Junior outfielder Tara Fritscher made her first collegiate start in the second game, beginning the contest in left field
