Rensberger returns to circle, beats Northwestern to clinch TRC share

Wilson adds 2 doubles, 3 RBIs; Field, Strasser add 2 hits each

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Bria Rensberger

Softball

Rochester 13, Northwestern 1 (Wednesday): Bria Rensberger returned to the circle to pitch a seven-hitter with five strikeouts, and Aubrey Wilson had two doubles and three RBIs for the visiting Rochester softball team in a win over Northwestern that clinched  a share of the Three Rivers Conference title Wednesday.

Jadyn Field added two hits and two RBIs, and Darah Strasser also had two hits for Rochester, who won their sixth straight game and improved to 17-4 overall and 7-0 in the TRC.

Rensberger took a liner off her pitching hand in an 11-6 win over Peru Monday and pitched only four innings. Brailyn Hunter pitched the final three innings.

Rensberger returned and while she did not pitch a 1-2-3 inning until the seventh inning, she turned back multiple Northwestern scoring opportunities.

In the third, Tessa Ortman walked and Stevie-Rae Hedges doubled, but Bailey Marcus lined into an inning-ending double play.

Addy Clark led off the fourth with a single and advanced to third on a pair of groundouts, but Rensberger struck out Grace Fischer to end the inning.

Offensively, Rochester scored three runs on passed balls and two runs on wild pitches. Also, they scored on a steal of home and an error.

Rensberger, Hunter and Aubrey Miller each added a hit and an RBI. Mylee Heinzmann also had a hit. Rochester also received nine walks.

Miller and Emma Mathias combined to draw five walks and score seven runs out of the top two spots in the lineup.

Wilson opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly in the first.

Miller scored on an error, and Field had a two-out, two-run single to make it 4-0 in the third.

Mathias scored on a passed ball, Wilson scored on a wild pitch, and Hunter had an RBI single in the fifth.

In the sixth, Strasser scored on a passed ball, Miller stole home on the front end of a double steal with Mathias, and Rensberger had an RBI single.

Strasser scored on another passed ball in the seventh before Wilson cranked a two-run double.

In other TRC games Wednesday, Southwood beat Northfield 10-1, Whitko beat Wabash 9-1, and Peru edged Maconaquah 7-6. Southwood, Whitko and Peru are all 5-2 in conference play. Lewis Cass (3-2), whose game with Manchester was rained out, also remains in the mix.

Rochester hosts Whitko at 5:30 p.m. Monday.

Rochester 13, Northwestern 1

Rochester 103 033 3 – 13 10 0

Northwestern 000 010 0 – 1 7 3

WP – Bria Rensberger (7 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K)

LP – Marcus (4 IP, 5 H, 7 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, 7 K)

2B – Aubrey Wilson 2 (RHS), Hedges (NW)