Kent State Softball Uses Long Ball to Take Two at JMU Invite

Saturday, March 1

Harrisonburg, Va.

2:30 p.m.

Kent State University

8-4

James Madison University

8-8

Kent State

James Madison

Abbey Ledford

Photo by: David Dermer

Kent State Softball Uses Long Ball to Take Two at JMU Invite

3/1/2014 8:26:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

HARRISONBURG, Va.— Five different players homered for Kent State on Saturday as the Golden Flashes won both of its games at the James Madison Invitational. The Golden Flashes opened with a 9-1 five-inning victory over Penn State in the morning and defeated James Madison 4-3 in the afternoon.

"Those are two meaningful wins for us," said head coach Karen Linder. "It's always good to beat a Big Ten opponent and James Madison was in the NCAA Tournament last year."

The Flashes entered with three home runs in its first 10 games, but matched that total in each game on Saturday.
Solo home runs by freshman Maddy Grimm (first inning), junior Kim Kirkpatrick (third inning) and sophomore Shelbi Tilton gave the Flashes a 3-1 lead over Penn State through four innings.

"We had great offensive production today and I was excited to see five different girls hit home runs. It's always great for pitchers when the offense scores early, and we did that in both games."

Kent State broke it open by scoring six runs in the fifth. Following back-to-back walks, Kirkpatrick singled to score Chloe Kesterson. An error on the play allowed Caitie Kilbane to come home as well and Kirkpatrick advanced to third. Dani Ramos then singled and stole second. Grimm brought Kirkpatrick and Ramos home with a single to left field. After loading the bases later in the inning, Abbey Ledford and Erika Warren drew walks to allow two more runs to score.

Senior Lauren McNeil (1-1) went the distance to earn her first victory of the season. She allowed just one run on four hits and had two strikeouts. Marlaina Laubach (4-4) was the losing pitcher for Penn State, allowing three runs on four hits in 3.1 innings.

Grimm delivered her second first inning home run of the day against James Madison, but this time with a runner on base after Ramos singled to center in the previous at-bat.

The Dukes got on the board in the bottom of the fourth. After a leadoff double, the next batter hit a sac fly to center. An error on the throw to third allowed the runner to score cut it to 2-1.

Senior Abbey Ledford and sophomore Michele Duffy hit back-to-back homers to leadoff the top of the fifth and give the Flashes a three-run lead.

James Madison threatened in the bottom of the sixth with a two-run homer, but freshman Ronnie Ladines entered to shut the Dukes down over the final 1.2 innings for the first save of her collegiate career.

Junior Emma Johnson (5-2) threw 5.1 innings and allowed two earned runs on seven hits. Johnson recorded nine strikeouts and walked just one batter. Jailyn Ford (5-4) allowed four runs on six hits and had six strikeouts in a complete game loss.

"Our pitchers did their jobs today," Linder said. "Lauren did a nice job holding Penn State to one run. That was a big win for her. Emma and Ronnie both did their jobs against James Madison."

Grimm and Ramos both collected three hits on the day. Grimm drove in five runs and scored three times.

Kent State returns to the diamond with five games at the University of Georgia Softball Classic next weekend (March 7-9).