Miles Souza, Staff Writer
Beloit College softball has had an action-packed few weeks since their trip to Florida over spring break. The Bucs have struggled, but battled hard, losing some close matchups that could have seemingly gone either way.
The Bucs opened a six-game home stint for the three-day weekend with a non-conference header against Mount Mary University. This two-game series was a dress rehearsal for their conference opener on Saturday.
Mount Mary got the best of them in a close match-up where they defeated the Bucs by a score of 7-9. Beloit brought it back in the second with a great 9-6 win to split the series.
Freshman leadoff hitter Lylah Murrah’27 lead the charge for the offense, collecting two hits in each game. Sophomore pitcher Samantha Friedrichsohn’26 took the win on the mound, tossing five innings. Junior pitcher Helena Harrison’25 had a strong showing in relief. Harrison pitched two scoreless innings to close the game for the Bucs.
The Bucs then entered the weekend to face off against the Cornell College Rams to open up their conference play. The Bucs held the Rams at bay, but couldn’t get enough going on offense. They lost the first game of the doubleheader, 1-4, and the second, 0-2.
Softball then took on the Grinnell College Pioneers in their fifth and sixth games of the weekend. This was bound to be a tough matchup for the Bucs. The Pioneers have found themselves near the top of the Midwest Conference for most of the recent years.
Grinnell got the better of the Bucs over the weekend. Grinnell took both games. The Bucs lost the first 1-7 and the second 2-9.
The scores however do not reflect the effort from the Bucs during this fixture. They held the Pioneers scoreless into the fourth inning of the second game, which is a great improvement to see from years past.
Over the first half of the season, the Bucs have seen production from similar suspects as years prior. Junior shortstop Angela Donath’25 leads the team in average and doubles, with an average of .357 and 6 doubles. Junior center fielder Sidda Meyers is close behind with an average of .338. The pair each have driven in 12 RBIs over the first 22 games of the season.
On the mound, sophomores Kaylee Witte’26 and Friedrichsohn have thrown the bulk of the innings over the first 22 games of the season. Harrison has been the main third arm for the Bucs and has been throwing some quality innings in recent games. Friedrichsohn and Witte have almost identical earned run averages, coming in at 4.70 and 4.71.
The team heads to Illinois for a pair of conference doubleheaders. The Bucs will start against Illinois College for two on Saturday and will then take on Knox College on Sunday.
Softball’s next home match-up will be this Thursday at the Strong Stadium Complex against Carroll University. The non-conference doubleheader starts at 3 p.m.
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