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ACC falls short in tripleheader to Oakland

News Photo by James Andersen ACC’s Kendra Cole throws a pitch during a game against Oakland at the Huron Shores fields on Friday.

Victory fell just out of the grasp of the Alpena Community College softball team on Friday.

The Lumberjacks lost in three games to Delta–6-5, 6-3 and 8-7 (eight innings)–failing to come up with clutch hits with the games in the balance.

“Oakland is leading the conference. I’ve been saying it for the last two weeks. We can play with anyone when we want to,” ACC coach Shelly Hance said. “We made a few errors and it cost us.”

An infield error ultimately pushed the Raiders past ACC in the closing game. With one out in the eighth inning, the Lumberjacks made an error at first base allowing the winning run to cross the plate.

The Lumberjacks led early, but faltered down the stretch before rallying to tie the game, 7-7, in the sixth inning on a two-run single from Kelsey Huffman.

Both teams were limited to one hit in the seventh inning and the Lumberjacks managed just one hit in their last turn at the plate.

ACC led 3-0 after two innings, but an error and a two-run home run allowed the Raiders to pull ahead 4-3.

A two-run home run from Ashley Meyers in the fourth inning gave ACC a 5-4 lead, but again Oakland rallied. A three-run double in the top of the fifth inning gave the Raiders a 7-5 advantage.

“We had chances. We had chances all day,” Hance said. “We competed with them, but we left too many runners on base.

Alpena rallied from a 4-1 deficit in the first game, scoring three runs in the fourth inning.

Monica Bartz had the key hit for ACC, hitting a two-run single and Kayla Lenard followed her with an RBI single.

Oakland took the lead back in the bottom of the fifth inning after Malinda Talaga blasted a two-run home run to center field.

An RBI single from Taylor Huffman to score Alexa Quaine cut the lead to 6-5 in the seventh inning and ACC had runners on first and second base before Oakland hurler Laken Berthume struck out Kailey Hunt to end the game.

The game was a continuation of a game that began on March 31 but was suspended after two innings due to weather. The contest resumed in the top of the third inning with Oakland leading 4-1.

Taylor Huffman led ACC with two hits.

ACC pitcher Kendra Cole limited the Raiders to two hits, both in the fifth inning.

The Lumberjacks ran into trouble again in the second game. Trailing 6-2 in the bottom of the seventh inning, ACC scored once and had the tying run at the plate with two outs, but Oakland was able to end the threat.

Kayla Lenard led off ACC’s turn at the plate with a triple and scored on the play after a throwing error. Quaine and Meyers followed with singles, but ACC’s scoring ended there.

Meyers led ACC with three hits and an RBI and Lenard had two hits and scored twice.

ACC scored a run in both the third and fifth innings, getting an RBI double from Meyers in the third and an RBI single from Huffman in the fifth.

The Lumberjacks stranded nine base runners in the game, including two each in the fourth, fifth and seventh innings.

A four-run second inning pushed the Raiders out front for good. Aubrey Long led off the second inning with a home run and the Raiders batted around as Jordan Johnson, Amanda Karas and Addison Breeding had RBI hits.

Oakland added a run in the fourth and fifth innings.

ACC will host Macomb in a doubleheader at 3 and 5 p.m. today. The Lumberjacks will host the Monarchs again on Sunday for a doubleheader at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

James Andersen can be reached via email at sports@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5694. Follow James on Twitter @ja_alpenanews.

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