GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Purdue Northwest (6-12, 3-4 GLIAC) split a road doubleheader at Davenport in Friday's Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action. The Pride took Game 1 by a final of 7-5 and the Panthers bounced back in the nightcap with 6-4 victory.
GAME 1: PNW 7, DU 5
Taylor Stevens' three-run blast in the first inning opened the scoring as PNW jumped out to a 5-0 lead after two. Stevens now leads the GLIAC with six home runs on the year.
Starter
Courtney Blackwell struck out a career-high 10 batters while improving to 4-5 on the season. The right-hander allowed just three hits over the first five innings before fending off a furious rally by Davenport.
Blackwell's final line included 10 strikeouts, one walk, eight hits and two earned runs in her sixth complete game.
The Pride tacked on two more in the fourth on a
Jessica Weaver sac fly and
Ashley Bravo infield single to extend the lead to 7-0. Weaver and Bravo each had two hits to pace the Pride at the plate.
PNW outhit DU 9-8 in the contest with base knocks recorded by
Aubrey Shroyer (1-2, 2 BB, 2 R),
Montana Martinez (1-2, 3 R),
Amanda Noblett (1-3) and
Kara Aloisio (1-4, 2B).
GAME 2: DU 6, PNW 4
The script was flipped in the second game of the doubleheader after a home run by DU's Mariah Cura sparked an early 6-0 lead for the Panthers.
PNW finally got on the board in the fifth with a
Madison Schultz solo blast, her third of the season and 16th of her career. Then,
Jocey Gault roped an RBI double and
Sabryna Stanley followed with an RBI knock to trim the deficit to three, 6-3, after five innings.
Weaver's second sac fly of the day made it 6-4 in the sixth, but that was as close as PNW would get after the host Panthers outslugged the Pride 14-7.
Shroyer's double to lead off the game extended her reached-base streak to nine games while hitting safely in the previous six contests.
Briana Poehler and
Allison Arnold also recorded base hits in the nightcap.
In the circle,
Maddison Roop tossed 2.2 shutout frames in relief with a pair of strikeouts to lead the Pride.
NEXT UP
PNW will open a 14-game homestand at Dowling Park when it welcomes Grand Valley State to Hammond on Wednesday.
