Ravens Coast Past Beavers, Clinch HCAC Tournament Berth

The Anderson University softball team swept the Bluffton University Beavers on Sunday in a Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference double header on the Raven Softball Field.

Before Sunday's doubleheader, it was determined that with a sweep, the Ravens would clinch a spot in the HCAC Tournament. The Ravens ended the day with a 13-17, 9-5 record, while the Beavers fell to 6-27, 3-13 on the year. The Ravens defeated the Beavers 9-1 in five innings both in Game 1 and Game 2.

GAME 1: ANDERSON 9, BLUFFTON 1 (F/5)

Bluffton took an early 1-0 lead over the Ravens in the first inning after brining in a run on a single. Anderson sent four batters up, but were unable to get a runner across home plate to end the inning.

In the bottom of the second, the Ravens made it back to the top of the batting order, with bases loaded and two outs and Ally Hall up to bat. On the second pitch, Hall swung, sending the ball into far-left center field for her first career home run and a grand slam! Hall's homer gave the Ravens a 4-1 lead over the Beavers.

The Ravens built on the lead in the third when Alysa Marcin sacrificed flied out to left field, allowing Jayden Brown to score.

The scoring wasn't over yet for the Ravens. In the bottom of the fourth with Samantha Herron on second, Taylor Johnson was up to bat. Johnson singled to the second basemen, and Herron advanced to third then scoring on the throw. Johnson would go on to reach second on the next at bat as Brown made it to first on a throwing error. Kyleigh Lowry then followed with a single, later advancing to second, and sending Brown to third and Johnson home. Next up to bat was Marcin. A single up the middle from Marcin brought home Lowry and Brown, giving the Ravens their 9-1 lead.

With a runner in scoring position, the Beavers were able to get a run across the plate in the top of the fifth, handing the Ravens their first victory of the day.

Lowry led the Ravens, going 3-for-3 with one RBI against the Beavers. Hall and Marcin led the Ravens with four RBIs and three RBIs respectively. Aimee Cook got the win for the Ravens on the mound, pitching five innings while only allowing one run on five hits against the 23 batters she faced.

The Game 1 victory handed head coach Tony Holloway his 300th career victory as the Ravens head softball coach.

GAME TWO: ANDERSON 9, BLUFFTON 1

The Ravens took the early lead in Game 2. Although the Ravens got caught in a stealing situation, Johnson was able to reach home first to get a 1-0 lead. Neither team would get a run in the second.

The Beavers would tie up the game in the top of the third, getting one runner across on a sac fly. Anderson quickly took back their lead in the bottom of the inning. Brown stepped up to bat with zero outs and bases loaded. She would then single to left field, advancing Johnson to second and sending home Hall and Herron. On a passed ball, Brown and Johnson each advanced one base. On an unlucky double-play the Ravens were able to pull out one positive with Johnson scoring the final run of the inning. The Ravens took a 4-1 lead.

Ravens pitcher Alexis Kern sent the Beavers in and out in a 1-2-3 at the top of the fourth. The Ravens would go on to bring in one more run in the bottom of the fourth. A sacrifice bunt from Herron sent home Bell to make it a 5-1 ball game.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Ravens had runners on second and third with Lowry up to bat. Lowry doubled down the left field line, sending Brown to third and Johnson home. Mabrey Buis then got her first career hit and RBI with a single up the middle, advancing to second on an error and sending Lowry to third and Brown home. The Ravens would get two outs before Anna Jones walked off the game with a single to center field and brining in her first career RBI's with Lowry and Buis scoring, giving the Ravens eight runs over the Beavers in the fifth inning for a  run rule victory.

Brown led the Ravens, going 2-for-3 with two RBI's. Johnson went 2-for-2 against the Beavers. Kern pitched four innings for the Ravens, allowing one run on two hits and getting three strikeouts. Lexi Rankin closed out the game with one inning pitched, walking one batter and striking out one.

With the sweep over the Bluffton Beavers, the Ravens clinched a berth in the HCAC Tournament. "We came into [Sunday] tied for fourth with Franklin. We knew the No. 6 spot had at least eight losses. What [Sunday] accomplishes is that it puts us in a position where we are 9-5 and we can now control where we are at. If we can get a win or two against Transylvania, maybe we can move up or down in that 2-5 range." Said Coach Holloway.

When talking about Sunday's game, Holloway said the following: "We really controlled the game from start to finish. In each game, we gave up a run and then I think we started kicking it into gear. We hit well and finished with 11 hits in each game. We had some timely hitting and got some kids off the bench to swing some bats and got a couple of key hits. Anna Jones ended the game with a two-run single." He went on to say, "What a lot of people don't know is that we've played our last three scheduled doubleheaders without one of our big hitters in Chloe Closser. She's our No. 3 hitter, our home run leader, our RBI leader, so that has hurt, but we responded well."

The Ravens now prepare for a double header next Saturday against the Pioneers of Transylvania University (20-8, 8-2) to close out the 2021 regular season in Lexington, Ky. Transylvania is receiving votes in the latest National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) NCAA Division III poll. First pitch of game one is set for 1PM with game two to follow.