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Ashland University softball split with Findlay in a doubleheader at Brookside Park on a Friday (April 14) afternoon in which 21-year head coach Sheilah Gulas was honored in the midst of her final season.
Current and former players took the field between games to recognize Gulas' 31-year career, which includes 920 wins with earlier stops at Allegheny and Wittenberg.
"It was nice," Gulas said. "It's great that some alumni came back. We had a great crowd today. There's still a lot of season left, so it's not a tearjerker, but it one of those things that brings back memories. It was a special day, a special moment, and since we got the win, that makes it even better."
AU lost Game 1, 7-1, and won Game 2, 9-3.
"In the first game," Gulas said, "we definitely didn't play our game. It was nice to come right back into that second game and attack it, get the runs and get AU ball back at Brookside."
Ashland seniors Jenny Raguz and Alexis Van Horn and sophomores Paige Summers and Kylie Asmus all had two RBIs in the victory.
Summers, Asmus, Van Horn, freshman Dayna Denner and senior Ally Farrah all went 2-for-4.
Summers led the team with three runs scored.
In the circle for the Eagles, sophomore Hannah Stroe won her sixth game of the season, allowing two earned runs accompanied by a pair of strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings of work.
Junior Paige McMenemy came on for 1 2/3 inning of relief to tie her with sophomore Abbie Sgro with a team-leading two saves this season.
In Game 1, sophomore Kayla Troyer's bunt single in the bottom of the second was AU's lone RBI.
McMenemy fended off the Oilers for 5 2/3 innings, leaving the contest tied at 1 from the second through the fifth.
However, Findlay plated five against McMenemy in the sixth, and one in the seventh against Sgro. The Oilers out-hit Ashland 12-5 in the game.
"We need to find a way to take two games," Gulas said. "But the GLIAC is tough. There's a lot of depth and a lot of teams that are .500, we just need to find a way to not be one of those teams. It's going to take 14 solid innings."
UP NEXT: The Eagles play Tiffin on the road on Saturday (April 15). The doubleheader begins at noon.
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