MOUNT VERNON – The Mount Vernon Nazarene University softball team (36-12, 26-10) set a new program record as it recorded win No. 36 of the season after sweeping Huntington University (15-32, 13-23) on Saturday, April 30. T
he 36 wins for coach Jeana Howald’s team surpasses the previous single season record of 35, which was set in 1992.
Continuing a recent trend, MVNU used more late-game dramatics to secure its first win of the day. Trailing 7-3 entering the bottom of the seventh, the Lady Cougars came to life. Mackenzie Hancock hit a two-run single to center that scored Megan Pentz and Kaycee Ollis. Trailing by two, Maddison Ruhl kept MVNU’s momentum going with a two-run single of her own that scored Mallory Shoup and Hancock to tie the game.
With two on base with two outs, a familiar hero stepped up to the plate. Kaylee Myers, who had a walk-off double on Friday against No. 17 Marian, crushed a three-run bomb over the left-center field fence to end the game with a program-tying 35th win, 10-7.
MVNU continued to take care of business in the back end of the doubleheader. Macee Marcum began the scoring for MVNU with an RBI single to center that scored Pentz. The Lady Cougars scored their final two runs of the ballgame in the third. Pentz hit a sacrifice fly that scored Kylee Matern, and Nevaeh Clark had an RBI groundout that brought home Ollis from third.
The three runs would be all of the support that starting pitcher Nadia Hoffman needed. Hoffman pitched a complete-game, one-hit shutout for MVNU. Hoffman had six strikeouts in the 3-0 victory that set the MVNU single-season record..
With the regular season now over, MVNU's next test is the Crossroads League Tournament. The tournament begins on May 4 at Grand Park in Westfield, Ind. As the No.3 seed, MVNU is set to take on sixth-seeded Goshen College at noon.
