Bluffton will host Albion on Monday, March 25. Game one is slated for 3:30 p.m.

BLUFFTON__The Bluffton University softball team rallied late in game one for a split with Asbury University on Saturday, March 22, 2024. The Beavers upped their season mark to 3-13, while Asbury stands 9-10 on the year.

Kaylee Grant (Lima/Shawnee) score on a failed pickoff attempt in the bottom of the first, but the Beavers trailed 3-1 until she crossed the dish again in the bottom of the fifth following an RBI single by Emily Hope (Enon/Greenon).

Bluffton saved the real fun for the sixth. A leadoff walk to pinch hitter Halee McDade (Oxford/Talawanda) kicked off the inning. Kayleigh Michael (Eaton/National Trail) singled through the left side and Taylor Born (Mt. Cory/Cory-Rawson) was hit by a pitch, loading the bases. Junior Mia McCartney (North Baltimore) came through with a two-run double off the yellow tile in left field and then she crossed the dish thanks to an Asbury wild pitch, making it 5-3!

Hope worked three innings of relief, earning her third win of the season. She faced just 11 batters, walking one and allowing only one hit. Hayley Lewis (Kettering/Fairmont) struck out three and allowed three runs on three hits but did not factor in the decision.

Grant was 4-of-4 with two runs scored and McCartney drove in two.

Asbury scored five runs in the top of the first and then grand slams in the sixth and seventh propelled the visitors to a 15-6 victory which gave the Eagles a series split. Grant had a two-run double in the third and Hope laced a run-scoring single, making it 5-3.

Kryshel Dales (Defiance/Ayersville) drove in Ella McCombs (Springfield/Southeastern) with a base knock in the sixth and Grant continued her white-hot afternoon with Bluffton's first long ball of the season, a two-run shot off the scoreboard in the home seventh, but it was too little, too late.

Grant went 2-for-4 for a 6-of-8 Friday night! She drove in four and scored twice in game two. McCartney scored two runs in the series finale.