Box Score
PANAMA CITY, Fla. – Second verse, same as the first. Twice the LC softball team took to the field on Friday and twice the Lady Wildcats mercy-ruled an opponent, the latest victim being Lynchburg, a team LC squashed 8-0 in the night cap at the NCAA Division III Leadoff Classic.
Much like Friday morning's 9-0 win over Emerson, LC was on the offensive early and often, putting up two runs in the first inning, one in the second, three in the third and two in the fourth inning, the last inning in which the Lady Wildcats, the home team, were required to bat.
Rene Schwartzenburg (9-0), who had an 11-strikeout, two-hitter versus Emerson, followed with five strike outs, one hit and no walks in the Lynchburg game.
Kelly Williams pitched the fifth inning and struck out two.
“I thought Rene threw well again,” LC coach Tim Whitman said. “I was glad that Kelly was able to get in and finish it off for us … Overall, I'm pleased with (today's performance). We came out and played our game. They helped us out a little bit (with three fielding errors), but we kept the pressure on them.”
Now the Lady Wildcats (12-0), can't put themselves in the championship bracket with a win over Ramapo in the pool-play finale Saturday at 1 p.m.
“It won't get any easier on us,” Whitman said. “Ramapo is a good team and do some things well. They're going to be a tough challenge. The biggest this for us, though … and I would love to win every game this weekend, but the biggest thing for us is to keep getting better.”
It might prove difficult for LC, which has shut out four straight opponents and scored no fewer than eight runs in four consecutive games, to improve much from where they are now.
Against Lynchburg, with Schwartzenburg and Williams dealing, the Lady Wildcats' bats came alive quickly.
Jodi Montagnino hit a two-run homer in the first to start the offense. Mary Alice Roy followed with an RBI single in the second.
In the third, Ashleigh Clement delivered and RBI double to push LC's lead to 4-0 with Brittany Menard and Roy driving in two more runs, Menard with a single and Roy with a bases-loaded walk, to extend the lead to 6-0.
In the fourth, Aimee Dubroc drove in Kelsey Brown on a fielder's choice ground out and Carli Wheeler got an infield hit with the bases loaded to close out the scoring.
“Lynchburg had stronger pitching than the first team we played,” Roy said, “but we did a good job of making adjustments at the plate and getting some good hits.”
Almost everyone who came to plate for LC managed to get in on the offensive act.
Roy finished 2-for-2 with a run scored and two RBI, Clement 1-for-3 with a run scored and two RBI, Amber Thomas 1-for-3 with a run scored, Devan Greene 1-for-2 with a run scored, Montagnino 1-for-3 with a run scored and two RBI, Wheeler 1-for-1 with an RBI and Menard 1-for-2 with an RBI.
