Brownfield’s Blast Beats Bobcats

Wednesday, April 12

Athens, Ohio

2:00 p.m.

Kent State University

16-21, 0

Ohio

26-11, 0

Kent State

Ohio

Photo by: Bob Christy

4/12/2017 7:17:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

Box Score (pdf)

ATHENS, Ohio – Sophomore Bailey Brownfield's home run to lead off the top of thee 11th inning accounted for all of the scoring in Kent State 1-0 win at Ohio on Wednesday afternoon. The victory gives the Golden Flashes a win of the season series, 2-1, and puts them within a game of first place in the Mid-American Conference East Division.

"I can't overstate how proud I am of this team for earning this gutsy win," said head coach Eric Oakley. "We played a solid all-around game, which was great to see. Several players made huge defensive plays. Ronnie [Ladines] had another stellar outing and Nicole [Teefy] was huge behind the plate. And Bailey picked the right time for her first home run of the year."

Delivering clutch hits has become the norm for Brownfield, who has three game-winning hits over the past 11 days. She hit a double to bring in two runs in the sixth inning of Kent State's 3-2 win at Central Michigan on April 1 and gave the Flashes a walk-off win with a two-out double Saturday against Northern Illinois.

Senior Ronnie Ladines (8-12) recorded her first shutout of the season, matching her career-high with 11 strikeouts in her longest outing as a Flash. She held the Bobcats to seven hits and had just two walks to the 43 batters she faced.

Ladines and battery mate senior Nicole Teefy combined to make the play of the game for the Flashes. With the potential winning run on third and two outs in the bottom of the 10th, Teefy scrambled to retrieve a ball that went to the backstop and made a perfect throw to Ladines, who was covering the plate and applied the tag on speedster Deanna Cole to send the game to the 11th.

Brownfield kept the momentum going by leading off the next inning with her first home run of the season. It was Kent State's first hit since the fifth inning and only extra-base hit of the game.

The Flashes had early success against 2016 MAC Pitcher of the Year Savannah Jo Dorsey, as junior Emily Dobbin and Brownfield both singled in the first inning. During the first five innings, the Flashes totaled five hits and eight runners left on base.

Brownfield and sophomore Jen Cader led Kent State with two hits each. Grimm had the other hit for the Flashes.

Kent State (16-21, 6-6 MAC) improves to 2-4 in extra innings this season. This was the third time the Flashes have held a team scoreless through seven innings.

The Flashes will host Miami for a series this weekend at the Diamond at Dix beginning Friday at 3 p.m.