The William Jewell softball team narrowly missed an opportunity to pull a major upset early in Great Lakes Valley Conference season as they fell twice to No. 2 Indianapolis by scores of 2-1, and 12-2 in five innings. The loss drops the Cardinals to 6-12 overall, 0-4 in the GLVC while Indianapolis improves to 17-0 on the year.
In the opener the Cardinals jumped on three-time All-American Morgan Foley early grabbing a 1-0 lead after three innings.
Megan Barnes reached on a bunt single to second base and advanced to third on a wild pitch and sacrifice.
Madi Giles put the Cardinals on the board with a single to left field to score Barnes.
The Greyhounds tied the game in the bottom of the fourth on a double from Jenny Thompson scoring Jessie Noone, who had walked. UIndy took the 2-1 lead in the sixth as Erika Goodwin reached on a Cardinal error and later scored on a wild pitch.
Sophomore southpaw
Taylor Friesen took the loss to fall to 1-2 on the year despite a great performance against the nationally ranked Greyhounds. Friesen allowed just four hits, three walks, and one earned run in the complete game effort, the first of her career.
Brooke Bernard led the Jewell offense with two hits against Foley who struck out 14 in the win for UIndy.
In game two the Cardinals again jumped out to an early lead as three walks and a single put Jewell up 1-0 after a half an inning. The Greyhounds responded by plating three in the bottom half of the frame. Jewell managed to pull within one as
Erika Carvan reached on an error and scored on a double from
Nona Pauline to cut the UIndy lead to 3-2 but the Greyhound broke the game open with five runs in the bottom of the second followed by two more in the third and fourth to take the 12-2 win.
Pauline totaled two of Jewell's three hits in the night cap.
Shelby McGraw took the loss in the circle to fall to 4-7 after allowing eight runs on four hits and four walks.
Anna Biondo also tossed three innings in relief allowing two earned runs on five hits while striking out two.
Up next the Cardinals will continue GLVC play as they host Bellarmine and Southern Indiana in the 2016 home openers next weekend in Liberty, Mo.
