Softball team ends season with two losses to Calvin

OLIVET, Mich. – The Olivet College softball team ended the 2018 season with two losses to Calvin College, 1-0 and 5-0, on Senior Day at the Cutler Athletic Complex in Olivet.

THE BASICS
Final Scores: Calvin 1, Olivet 0; Calvin 5, Olivet 0
Location: Cutler Athletic Complex; Olivet, Mich.
Records: Calvin 26-5 overall, 9-3 MIAA; Olivet 18-14 overall, 5-9 MIAA

HOW IT HAPPENED (GAME ONE)

• The game was a pitcher's duel between Calvin's Anna Gernant and Olivet sophomore Gracie Boyle.
• Boyle retired 12 of the first 15 Knights to come up to bat. Gernant sent down the first 11 Comets before a double by sophomore Kinslea Blouin broke up the perfect game with a double to right field.
• Calvin scored the only run it would need in the top half of the fifth inning. With two outs and runner on third, the Knights scored an unearned run when batted ball was misplayed by the Olivet defense.
• In the sixth inning, the Comets left two runners stranded.
• In the seventh, the first two Olivet players reached base safely. Gernant got out of the jam, inducing an infield fly out for the first out and striking out the last two batters.

FOR THE COMETS

• Blouin was 2-for-3 at the plate.
• Four other players each had a hit.
• Boyle was the hard-luck losing pitcher, as she allowed the unearned run on six hits in the complete game performance.

FOR THE KNIGHTS

• Leadoff batter Maddie DeGroot notched three of the six Calvin hits.
• Gernant picked-up the pitching win. She struck out 10 and did not walk a batter.

HOW IT HAPPENED (GAME TWO)

• The Knights wasted no time in getting the lead, as they pushed across three runs in the first inning when Kennedy Geiger with a three-run triple.
• Olivet had two runners on base in the second but was not able to score any runs.
• Calvin used a two-out rally to plate two runs in the fifth inning.

FOR THE COMETS

• Olivet was limited to three hits, including two for junior Andrea Rico.
• Sophomore Haley Harty had the other hit.
• In the circle, sophomore Taylor Shellenberger suffered the loss. She gave up all five runs (two earned) on five hits over four and two-thirds innings.
• Rico threw an inning and one-third innings of hitless relief.

FOR THE KNIGHTS

• Geiger tallied two hits and drove in four runs.
• Gernant also had two hits.
• Ellie Borst earned the pitching win.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• After the games, the Comets recognized Konnor Geiger and Nikole Kern who played in their final collegiate softball games.
• Geiger played in the sixth-most games in school history with 130 and made the fifth-most starts with 125. She is the all-time leader in hit-by-a-pitch, being plunked by a pitch 15 times which is two times more than the next closest player. Geiger's other career statistical ranks are tied for second with 11 home runs, sixth with 156 total bases, tied for seventh with 57 RBI, seventh with 357 at-bats and 10th with 98 hits.
• Kern attended Saginaw Valley State University for two years before transferring to Olivet prior to the start of the 2017 season. She played in 62 career games at Olivet.