Softball Splits With Chesapeake

ARNOLD, MD. – The Anne Arundel Community College softball team split an NJCAA Region 20 doubleheader with visiting Chesapeake College Sunday. The Riverhawks dropped the first game, 11-6, before winning the second, 5-4. The win over the Skipjacks marks the first since the 2012 season.

Kendall Thomas moved to 2-1 on the season with a complete-game win in the nightcap, and also went 4-for-7 at the plate with an RBI on the day.

Chesapeake got seven runs on six hits in the second inning of the opener. Courtney Maurer hit a two-run home run in the third to put AACC on the board. Sierra Fowler followed with a two-run shot in the fourth before Maurer drove in another run on a two-out, bases loaded single to bring the Riverhawks within two, 7-5.

Back-to-back doubles and a double steal were part of Chesapeake's four run fifth inning that extended the Skipjacks' lead back up to six, 11-5. Ryann Brooks sent in the final run for the Riverhawks in the bottom of the inning with a double to right.

Jaclyn Nevins took the loss with eight runs (six earned) in four innings, She gave up 11 hits and struck out five. Kaleigh Hurd closed out the game with three runs on four hits in the final three innings.

AACC took a 2-0 lead in the first inning of the nightcap, using heads up base running after a pair of walks to get runners in scoring position and eventually see Courtney Croson come across on a wild pitch. Thomas drove in Hurd with a two-out single to center.

A Riverhawks error proved costly in the second as a dropped fly ball got a Skipjacks runner aboard, eventually scoring on a two-out single to cut AACC's lead in half.

AACC extended its lead to 4-1 with two runs in the third, using a wild pitch and two infield errors to score a pair of runs. Another Skipjacks error in the fourth edged the Riverhawks ahead, 5-1.

A two-out, three-run home run from Shyra Jones put the Skipjacks within striking distance in the fifth, but Thomas induced a fly out to center to end the inning.

Again in the sixth with two on and two outs, Thomas induced a fly out to center to end the threat before the Riverhawks retired the Skipjacks in order in the seventh to earn the win.

AACC last defeated the Skipjacks on April 4, 2012, winning the first game of a doubleheader, 7-6. Next up for the Riverhawks is a doubleheader at Hagerstown on Wednesday, March 29.