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Miller's mound heroics lead HU to softball sweep of SAU

Natalie McGuire, a senior on the Huntington University softball team, smacks a double in the first of two games against visiting Spring Arbor University on Tuesday, April 4. The Foresters won the game, 2-0.
Natalie McGuire, a senior on the Huntington University softball team, smacks a double in the first of two games against visiting Spring Arbor University on Tuesday, April 4. The Foresters won the game, 2-0. Photo by Steve Clark.

Freshman pitcher Lairen Miller pitched a first-game shutout and then put out a fire in the last inning of the second game to help the Huntington University softball team sweep past visiting Spring Arbor University on Tuesday, April 4, in a doubleheader.

Miller threw a six-hit shutout as the Foresters won, 2-0, in the opener, then she got the final two outs of the game for HU in an 8-6 win in the nightcap as it improved to 15-10-1 on the season.

HU held a comfortable 8-3 lead entering the seventh inning of the nightcap, but Spring Arbor hammered out four hits and three runs and had the tying run at the plate in the final frame before Coach Doug Gower summoned Miller in from the bullpen to lock things down.

Miller had six strikeouts without a walk in the opener to record her second consecutive complete game shutout. The Foresters gave her all the run support she needed with a pair of scores in the second inning, runs batted in courtesy of Sabrina Bethel and Karlee Blankenship.

Camille Furrow, who got the mound victory in the second contest, had two hits and a pair of RBI in that contest to pace HU, which tallied a solo run in the first, two in the third and five in the fourth.

Audra Klopfenstein had three hits in the contest and Natalie McGuire, Marty Harris and Blankenship each had two as HU rang up 15 for the game.

Klopfenstein touched home three times in the contest.

McGuire had two hits for HU in the opener.

HU is now 10-6 in Crossroads League play. SAU is 11-21 overall on the season, 6-10 in the Crossroads League.