DC Loses Pitchers' Duel to Bluffton

BLUFFTON, OHIO -- The Defiance College softball team lost their Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference opener to Bluffton University, 2-0, in the opening game of a scheduled doubleheader in Bluffton. DC led, 4-2, in the nightcap before lightning halted the game in the top of the fourth, marking the contest as incomplete.

The Yellow Jackets (10-11, 0-1 HCAC) loaded the bases in the first inning with just one out, but a popup and a strikeout got the Beavers (15-6, 1-2 HCAC) out of the jam to keep the game scoreless. DC left a runner on in each of the next two frames, while junior hurler Sarah Kaya (Lorain/Clearview) pitched herself out of a bases loaded jam of her own in the second, but the game would stay scoreless through four innings.

Bluffton struck for the only runs of the contest on a two-run home run down the left field line by Jessie Madzia to take a 2-0 lead. Defiance led off the seventh with a base hit by Michaela Bauer (Hicksville), but could not convert that into a run as the Yellow Jackets fell, 2-0.

Kaya finished with another complete game, throwing six innings and allowing two runs on six hits. She walked three and struck out six on the afternoon.

A pair of Yellow Jackets grabbed multi-hit games for DC, as sophomore Jordan Osborne (Delaware/Rutherford B. Hayes) and senior Megan Warren (Mason) each finished the game with two hits.

The second contest saw the Yellow Jackets leading, 4-2, in the top of the fourth inning when the third weather delay of the contest suspended play for good. Due to HCAC rules, the game will not be resumed or rescheduled.

Defiance returns to action with another pair of HCAC contests on Saturday, Apr. 8, when the Yellow Jackets travel to Cincinnati to take on Mount St. Joseph University. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.