Lady Topper softball dominates at Hilltopper Spring Fling

WKU senior infielder Amanda Thomas tags Canisius senior infielder Valorie Nappo as she attempted to steal the base in WKU’s win of 8-1 against Canisius on Friday Feb. 21, 2014 at the WKU softball complex in Bowling Green, Ky. (Jeff Brown/HERALD)

Austin Lanter

The WKU Lady Topper Softball team closed out the Hilltopper Spring Fling Sunday with wins against Canisius and Bradley.

The first game of the doubleheader put the Lady Toppers (9-4-1) against the Golden Griffins of Canisius. The two met on Friday as well which ended in a dominating 8-1 win for WKU.

Sunday’s game, however, was completely different.

WKU found itself down 1-0 in the final inning. After a leadoff single from senior outfielder Kelsie Mattox, the team was the benefactor of good luck. Canisius committed two errors after that and WKU took the game 2-1 in walk-off fashion.

“We always talk about how we want to hate losing more than we like to win and that was one,” junior infielder Preslie Cruce said. “We should have beaten them a lot earlier than the seventh inning. We were just glad to come through and get that win.”

The second game of the day, against Bradley, proved not to be as close as the first game.

Bradley jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning. However, WKU responded in the bottom of the frame to tie it once more.

After that, the Lady Toppers scored one run in the third, two in the fourth, and another in the sixth.

To lead off the fourth inning, Mattox sent the Bradley offering down the line into right field and ended up with an inside the park home run.

Two innings later, Cruce led off the inning with a home run of her own, a blast to center field.

Freshman pitcher Hannah Miniard threw a complete game, only allowing one hit and one run while striking out 11.

“Hannah, she’s doing great; I love Hannah,” Cruce said. “She keeps a good composure. She’s easy to play with. Her pitches right now are doing great. They didn’t adjust to her this last game.”

The Lady Toppers will be back in action this weekend as they host the Hilltopper Spring Classic. The team will play Green Bay, Northern Iowa, Indiana State, Wright State and IUPUI. The first game will be at 10:30 a.m. Friday.