The UW-Whitewater softball team, ranked twenty-fifth in the latest National Fastpitch Coaches Association poll, split the last two games of their spring trip in Clermont, FL Thursday. The Warhawks fell 8-4 to Trinity College and bounced back to defeat Buffalo State 7-0. UW-W returns from Florida with a 7-5 record.

Trinity Box
Buffalo State Box

Trinity put up eight runs on ten hits including a four-run seventh inning and Whitewater left seven runners stranded on the base paths in the loss. Senior shortstop Amanda LeBeau (Worth, IL/Richards) went 2x3 from the plate with a double. Freshmen Amanda Mertes (Des Plaines, IL/Elk Grove) and Emily Epifanio (Park Ridge, IL/Maine South) each recorded a 2x4 game from the batter's box.

Three Warhawks teamed up on the mound but freshman Katie Boyle (Greendale/Thomas More) picked up the loss to fall to 1-3 on the season.

Whitewater put up the only two runs of the first five innings of the game against Buffalo State. The two-run third would be all UW-W would need for the win but the Warhawks refused to settle and finished strong putting five more runs on the scoreboard in the final two innings.

Senior second baseman Courtney Baldwin (Spring Grove, IL/Richmond-Burton) was a perfect 2x2 at the plate with two runs and one RBI. Mertes added another two-hit performance and senior outfielder Lauren Cruz (Des Plaines, IL/Maine West) went 2x4 with two doubles. 

Junior left-hander Jessica Stang (Minnetonka, MN/Minnetonka) allowed just one Buffalo State hit in the shutout. Stang went the distance striking out eight and walking two in her fourth win in five games this season.

The Warhawks return to Whitewater to face Carroll University Wednesday, March 31 in a double-header scheduled to start at 3:00 pm.

For additional information: Brenda Volk