LONDON, Ont. After getting rained out on Saturday Sept. 13 vs. Carleton, the Western Mustangs women's softball team was eager to begin their quest for another championship.
Surprisingly, the field conditions were good despite all the rain Saturday and Western defeated the Ottawa Gee-Gees 2-1 in Game 1 and 11-3 in Game 2 (five innings) at Stronach Park.
Game 1 was a tight battle with Western (1-0) holding on for a 2-1 victory playing solid defense (1 error).
The Mustangs scored once in the second inning when Em Cornelius (London, Ont.) drove in Meg Maddigan (Brampton, Ont.) with a two-out single.
The Gee-Gees (0-1) tied it in the top of the fifth when they got 3 of the 4 hits they recorded in the game. Not to be out done on this day, the Mustangs responded in their half of the inning with a leadoff double by Cornellius who later scored on a one-out single by freshman Meg Hewins (Brampton, Ont.).
Nicole Shillington (Kingston, Ont.) recorded a triple and Kristina Lemon (London, Ont.) (1-0) struck out nine batters for the complete game victory.
In Game 2, the Mustangs (2-0) came our strong in the first inning, scoring three runs on four hits to cruise to an 11-3 win in five innings over Ottawa (0-2). The game was shortened by the run rule (game ends if one team is leading by seven or more runs after 5 innings).
Western pounded out 14 hits led by freshman Shea Black (Toronto) with three singles, Julianne Proniuk (Brampton, Ont.) with two singles, a walk and two RBI, Siobhan O’Connell (Mississauga, Ont.) with two singles and two RBI, freshman Cassy Harrison (St. Williams, Ont.) with two singles and two RBI, and freshman Katie Fong (Toronto) with one single and 3 RBI.
Rookie Cassandre Warne (Markam, Ont.) hit a triple and Jess Doerr (Walkerton, Ont.) (1-0) got the win on the mound.
On Wednesday Sept. 17 the Mustangs travel to Windsor’s Jackson Park for a double dip against Windsor at 5 & 7 pm. Next home action for Western is Saturday Sept. 20 with a doubleheader (2 & 4pm) against Waterloo and doubleheader Sunday Sept. 21 (noon & 2pm) in a rematch of last year’s provincial championship game facing Laurier.
All games are played at Stronach Park on Cheapside (between Huron and Sandford).
