GAME 1: Ferris State 14, Parkside 10
GAME 2: Ferris State 6, Parkside 5 (8 innings)
After a slugfest loss in game one, the Parkside softball team took Ferris State to extra innings in game two but dropped a heartbreaker. Junior Dani Evans hit three home runs during the doubleheader.
 
Parkside is set for the final week of the regular season, first facing Davenport on Friday at home.
 
Game 1 Recap
Both offenses exploded in a soggy game one that featured a 43-minute rain delay in the top of the first inning. The Rangers' 10 runs was a season-high, but Ferris State pounded out 18 hits for 14 runs of their own, including a 6-run first inning to kick things off.
 
The Bulldogs went up 10-0 before Parkside made it a ball game, scoring six of their own in the bottom of the fourth. In the inning, freshman CaroleAnn Goglin led off with a walk and junior Dani Evans drilled a 2-run home run to center field. After a Bulldogs error and a strikeout, the Rangers drew a walk and junior Taylor Delgado was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Freshman Rylee Baetz drew a walk to bring a run in, and junior Jadynn Powell hit a 2-run double down the line to make it 10-5. The final run of the inning came in on a redshirt-senior Alyssa Laxson RBI groundout.
 
FSU followed that with a 3-run fifth inning and another run in the sixth. Parkside ended the game scoring the final four runs, with one in the sixth on a Laxson RBI single and three more in the bottom of the seventh. The Rangers loaded the bases in the seventh, and Powell came through with an RBI single up the middle to score freshman Tia Livernash and Laxson followed that up with a 2-run single that plated Baetz and senior Kiley Akey, but the game ended on a groundout to shortstop.
 
The top of the order did a lot of damage for Parkside, with Powell going 2-for-5 with a double and three RBI, Laxson finishing 2-for-5 with four RBI and Baetz going 2-for-4 with three runs and an RBI. Delgado went 2-for-4 in the leadoff spot and Evans went 1-for-4 with a home run and two RBI.
 
Game 2 Recap
The Rangers took the early lead in game two with a run in the bottom of the first inning courtesy of a Powell sacrifice fly that brought in Delgado, who led off with a triple. After FSU tied it up in the top of the second, Evans hit her second home run of the game in the bottom of the second to break the 1-1 tie and put Parkside back on top 2-1.
 
The Bulldogs jumped back on top with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth inning and another in the top of the sixth, but again Evans cut into the Bulldogs lead with her second home run of the game and third of the day to make it 4-3 in the bottom of the sixth.
 
Parkside came back to tie it up in the bottom of the seventh on a Laxson RBI double that scored Delgado, making it 4-4. The Bulldogs opted to walk the red-hot Dani Evans, and it proved to be the right choice, as the game then went to extras. The top of the eighth started with an error, and the Bulldogs pushed across two runs to take the 6-4 lead.
 
In the bottom of the eighth, the Rangers were able to score one run with the help of an error, but the game ended on a groundout to the pitcher. The Bulldogs had three errors in the eighth inning, but the Rangers couldn't capitalize.
 
Evans finished 2-for-3 with a pair of home runs while Delgado went 2-for-4 with a triple and Goglin went 2-for-4.
 
ON DECK
The Rangers welcome in Davenport on April 29 and Grand Valley State on April 30 at Case Softball Complex. They'll end the regular season with a trip to Ferris State on Sunday, May 1 and Davenport on Monday, May 2.