Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 A non-conference doubleheader at Wheaton College on Friday afternoon was a late addition to the schedule for the Aurora University Spartan softball team. AU split the doubleheader with Wheaton, winning game one 11-1 in five innings and falling in game two 1-0.

Game One
Aurora 11 Wheaton 1 (5 innings)

Offense was served in game one for the Spartans as AU hammered out 14 hits and scored 11 runs in a mercy rule shortened game.

Wheaton got the first run of the game off sophomore pitcher Vanessa Hartzell in the bottom of the first, courtesy of a passed ball on a bases loaded strikeout.

AU tied the game in the second courtesy of a walk to Stephanie Starr which was followed by a double by Andrea Graves. Starr then scored on a suicide squeeze by Lauren Huebner that scored Starr to tie the game.

As Hartzell began to settle in, the Spartans bats kept scoring with two more runs in the third inning. Mandey Schrader doubled with one out and Laura Dierking followed with a single. Senior Sarah Clauser then laid down a suicide squeeze of her own to score Schrader and Dierking moving to second. Dierking then scored one batter later on a double by Starr for a 3-1 AU lead.

The fourth inning saw AU score five runs on four hits with Hartzell helping her own cause with a run scoring single, Schrader had an rbi double amd Graves drove in two with a single.

AU scored three more runs in the fifth with Logan Cahill driving in Huebner with her second run of the game, Schrader doubled for the third time, scoring Cahill and Schrader scored on a single from Dierking for the 11-1 lead.

Hartzell earned the win with one unearned run, three hits, three walks and struck out eight.

Game Two
Wheaton 1  Aurora 0

Game two  had a much different feel as the weather changed with lowering temperatures. The cool air worked in cooling off the hot Spartan bats.

Neither team could push across a run with AU junior pitcher Natalie Zanella holding the Wheaton bats at bay as well. Though she did work out of two bases loaded jams in the third and fifth innings.

Wheaton broke the scoreless tie in the sixth inning with a lead-off single that was followed with a sacrifice to advance the runner and then a run scoring single. Zanella did once again limit the damage as she got out of a one-out bases loaded jam for the third time.

AU did have base runners in six of the seven innings but could not manufacture a run in game two.

AU is now 3-7 overall on the season with the split. Next action for the Spartan softball team comes on Tuesday, March 25 when they travel to Hope College. Game time is set for 2:00 p.m. (est) in Holland, Mich.