The Detroit Titans softball team dropped a pair of games to in-state rival Eastern Michigan Wednesday afternoon at the Buysse Ballpark. The Titans could not hold on to a 2-0 fifth inning lead as EMU rallied late via the long ball for a 5-2 win in game one and took the night cap, 12-2.
Junior Jessica Liebner (Ortonville, MI/Brandon) led Detroit (7-37) on the day going 2-for-3 with an RBI on her second career triple while sophomore Kristin Sclater (Taylor, MI/Kennedy) hit 2-for-5 with a run scored and recorded her team-leading third triple of the season. Sophomore Ellen Sinclair (Chatham, ON/Chatham-Kent) also went 2-for-6 hitting her team-leading fourth home run while driving in three of UDM's four total runs.
EMU (19-29) was led by junior Jenny Scherer who hit 5-for-7 with two home runs, five RBI and four runs while sophomore Stacie Skodinski went 3-for-7 with a home run and five RBI.
Freshman Kara Spinelli (Newman, CA/Orestimba) held the Eagles scoreless through five innings in the first game in the losing effort allowing five hits with four strikeouts.
Game one started as a pitcher's duel and neither team could mount any offense through the first three innings.
Detroit broke through in the bottom of the fourth as senior Jacqueline Nortman (Groves, TX/Monsignor. Kelly Catholic) led off with a single up the middle and was moved to second by a sacrifice bunt from junior Erica Houthoofd (Unionville, MI/Unionville Sebewaing Area). After a ground out from sophomore Breana Sesoko (Anaheim Hills, CA/Canyon), Sinclair followed with a single to bring home Nortman from third givning UDM a 1-0 lead.
The Titans added another run in the fifth on back-to-back triples from Liebner and Sclater to move ahead 2-0.
However, the lead was short lived as Skodinski gave Eastern a 3-2 lead with a three-run homer over the center field fence in the sixth inning.
With two outs in the bottom half, UDM got the trying run to second base as Sesoko singled down the right field line followed by Sinclair who reached on a fielding error. EMU pitcher Jaclyn Caro kept UDM off the board getting the last batter to ground out to maintain the one run advantage.
The Eagles added two more runs in the top of the seventh on a sacrifice fly and a solo home run en route to the 5-2 win.
In the night cap, Eastern took an early 2-0 lead in the first inning but Detroit responded in the bottom half as Sinclair hit a two-run shot over left center field wall to tie the game at 2-2.
EMU took a 4-2 lead in the third as a Titan failed pick off attempt and throwing error allowed a run to score and runner to reach third base followed by a Skodinski RBI single.
Errors continued to plague UDM in the fourth as Eastern lead off with a walk then got runners on second and third on another throwing error. Sarah Gerber then made the Titans pay with a RBI single to move the Eagles ahead for good at 7-2.
EMU broke the game open in the fifth with five runs on four hits to take the game 12-2.
Detroit will close out the regular season with a Horizon League series against Loyola at Buysse Ballpark beginning with a doubleheader on Saturday, May 2 at 1:00 p.m.
