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ACC softball team splits doubleheader against Henry Ford

By JONNY ZAWACKI

News Sports Writer

The Alpena Community College softball team picked up their first two wins of the season over the weekend against Henry Ford. The teams split a doubleheader on Saturday, with Alpena winning game one by a score of 6-3, but dropped the second game 13-8. The two teams split again on Sunday as Alpena took game one of Sunday’s matchup by a final score of 7-4 behind a great all around day by Ashley Meyers.

The Lumberjacks wasted no time putting runs on the board as they scored two in the first inning as Paige Chmura drew a walk and Meyers followed it up with a two-run home run to put Alpena in front early.

Meyers was also on the mound for the Lumberjacks and pitched well for most of the afternoon. Henry Ford was able to take advantage of a costly two out error and scored three runs on back-to-back doubles to take a one run lead.

Alpena loaded the bases and eventually tied the game up at three runs apiece in the top of the third when Chmura reached on a bunt single, Meyers walked, Kendra Lay singled and Kelsey Udell ripped an RBI single to play the tying run.

The Lumberjacks regained the lead for good in the top of the fourth when Meyers and Alexa Quaine both drove in a run apiece on RBI singles.

Once again the Hawks connected with back-to-back doubles and got to within one run, but it was the closest they would get the rest of the game as Meyers connected on another two-run home run in the top of the sixth and eventually closed the game out, earning the win and collecting five RBI in the game.

“It felt pretty good, I was in a slump for a while getting jammed on the handle so to be able to come out and hit good, along with everyone else on the team hitting pretty well it was nice to be able to come out with the win,” Meyers.

Game two was another close battle throughout, but again the Lumberjacks wasted no time putting runs on the board early as Kendra Cole and Lindsay Timm each hit an RBI single to open up a quick two run lead for Alpena.

Meyers toed the rubber again in game two and looked sharp early, but Henry Ford was able to tie the game in the bottom of the third as they singled, doubled and tripled in the inning.

The score remained tied until the top of fifth inning when Nikki Flannigan reached on a bunt single, followed up by a Chmura walk to set up Meyers for some more heroics as she belted her third home run of the game, this one of the three-run variety to put the Lumberjacks up by three late.

The Hawks were able to scratch a couple runs across in the bottom of the fifth as they took advantage of a costly error to close the gap to one.

Alpena led by one heading to the bottom of the seventh, but eventually suffered some heartbrake. The Lumberjacks were one out away from completing the afternoon sweep, but a hard ground ball up the middle that bounced off the second base bag and underneath the center fielders glove eventually plated runners from first and second to come away with a nailbiting 6-5 victory.

“I thought we hit the ball well today, we were the better team. They beat us on unearned runs, they didn’t earn that win today and we just made some errors that we have to clean up and we’ll be alright. We have shown improvement and I’m happy to see how far we’ve come,” Alpena assistant coach Kaili Ponik said.

Alpena is now 2-22 on the year and will finish up their season today and tomorrow with four games against Mott Community College at Posen High School.

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