MT. PLEASANT, Mich.- The Marshall University softball team (15-24, 8-9 MAC) dropped two Mid-American Conference contests to conference leading Central Michigan University (27-13, 15-1 MAC) Saturday. The Herd dropped the first contest 3-2 in extra innings, before falling 6-0 in the second contest.

The first contest was a pitcher’s duel between Marshall’s De’Shaun Drake (Spring Valley, Calif.) and Central Michigan’s Amber Puchalski. The game remained scoreless, with Drake holding CMU to only two hits, through five innings. Nichole Corrigan (Corona, Calif.) broke the scoreless tie when she blasted a home run over the fence in left field to put Marshall up 1-0 in the sixth.

The Chippewas came back to tie the game in the bottom of the sixth. After a leadoff hit, CMU capitalized on an MU error to move into scoring postion. Central Michigan came up with only their fourth hit of the day to score the runner from second.

The Herd threatened in the seventh, but couldn’t get the runner in after Vanessa Clarkson (Moreno Valley, Calif.) singled to lead off the inning. Marshall’s Randi Neilson (Tucson, Ariz.) came in to relieve Drake on the mound with two runners on in the bottom of the seventh and struck out the Chippewa batter to get the Herd out of a tight situation.

The battle continued through the ninth when Central Michigan strung together three hits to score the winning run and take the game 3-2.

Neilson (5-9) received the loss on the mound after coming in in relief for the Herd. Drake pitched 6.2 innings giving up four hits and striking out nine. Clarkson went 2-for-3 to lead the Herd at the plate and Corrigan had Marshall’s lone RBI with the home run.

CMU broke through in the second contest to score four runs on five singles in the bottom of the fourth inning. The Chippewas added another run in the fifth and in the sixth to make the score 6-0.

Marshall wasn’t able to get anything going offensively as they totaled only four hits in the contest. Kari Britt (Huntington, W.Va.), Kimmie Nickell (Victor, W.Va.), Davenport and Drake each had a hit for the Herd.


Marshall will return to action tomorrow as they head to Kalamazoo, Michigan to take on Western Michigan University Sunday in a double-header at 1:00 p.m.