Melbourne, Fla. -- After starting the 2025 season and picking up its first win of the year on Monday, the Thunder softball team returned to the USSSA Space Coast Complex for two more games today, facing Anna Maria College and Baldwin Wallace University in another nonconference twinbill. Wheaton fell to the Anna Maria Amcats by a score of 7-4 in the first game this afternoon before suffering a narrow 3-2 defeat to the Yellow Jackets in game two. The Thunder's record sits at 1-3 after the first two days of the Spring Break schedule, and the squad is back in action on Wednesday when they match up against Emerson College and Cornell College at 12:15 PM and 2:30 PM (Eastern), respectively.
Game one of Wheaton's slate on Tuesday saw no runs scored in the first 1.5 innings, as Anna Maria posted only two hits in its opening two batting series. But the Thunder started the scoring in the second frame and jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Following an
Abby Whitehead single,
Gracey Rockness replaced her as a pinch runner and promptly stole second base to get herself in scoring position. The senior successfully rounded the bases thanks to an RBI single from
Cate Welch to provide Wheaton's first score of the day.
Megan Mosier then replicated Rockness' appearance by pinch running for Welch and stealing second base.
Livi Figueroa was able to advance to second on her ground ball via an Amcats error, and this same mistake was enough to send Mosier across home plate. Figueroa then provided the third and final run of the frame by taking third base before reaching home on a ground out.
After a three-up, three-down third inning for both sides, Anna Maria chipped away at the deficit with two scores in the top of the fourth. But Wheaton responded with another run in the same frame to make the score 4-2.
Soleil Weaver reached first base on a bunt before stealing second and advancing to third on the ensuing ground out. Another error from the Massachusetts side then enabled the freshman to race across the pentagon to tally what would prove to be the Thunder's last score of the game. Wheaton held the lead going into the final three frames, but Anna Maria flipped the script with three runs in the top of the fifth after drawing five walks in one batting series. The sixth inning also passed without any batters getting on base, but the Amcats added two more runs in the top of the seventh to stretch their lead to 7-4. Wheaton had one final chance to answer in the bottom of the frame but could only manage a single hit, as Anna Maria closed out the second-consecutive win of its Florida trip after also defeating Fitchburg State yesterday.
The Amcats tallied six hits to the Thunder's five this afternoon and finished the contest with two errors while Wheaton committed three. All five of Wheaton's hits were singles, as Anna Maria's solid defensive play did not allow any extra-base hits and just two RBI through the seven innings. Welch and
Kennedy Kemp were responsible for these RBI, with the former also posting one hit. She was joined on one hit by
Abie Brown,
Olivia Nahorniak, Weaver, and Whitehead. Figueroa, Mosier, Rockness, and Weaver each finished with a run scored and one stolen base and were matched on one stolen base by Brown.
Victoria Barbar pitched the first four innings for Wheaton this afternoon and earned the Thunder's only strikeout in game one while allowing just three hits from the 20 batters she faced. Kemp replaced her and spent 2.1 innings in the circle, giving up two hits and zero walks from ten Anna Maria batters.
The Thunder began game two on the front foot by jumping out to an early lead, but another stout defensive performance by the opposition prevented Wheaton from matching yesterday's second-game victory. Nahorniak led off with a single through the right side, and she and Weaver would eventually reach home plate for the Thunder's two runs in the first frame after the latter drew a walk to get on base. Baldwin Wallace nearly got out of the inning unscathed, but a fielding error by the pitcher with two outs on the board allowed Figueroa to make it safely to first and the aforementioned two runners to reach the pentagon.
Offensive momentum then proved hard to come by for both sides, as the two teams failed to register any hits in their next two batting sequences. But an inside-the-park home run in the bottom of the third halved the deficit for the Yellow Jackets, and the Ohio squad got two more runners on base before the Thunder halted their progression and ended the inning. Despite just one total hit for either side in the fourth frame, both teams stranded a pair of baserunners to keep the low score intact at 2-1. Wheaton tallied back-to-back singles in the top of the fifth inning but could not manage to score from either one, and the decisive series arrived in the bottom half as Baldwin Wallace picked up the two runs they needed to turn the game around. A deep triple into right-center field came immediately after a lead-off single to tie the score at 2-2, and a ground out RBI two batters later brought the runner on third across home plate to move the Yellow Jackets ahead by one run. Both teams saw three-straight ground outs make up the quick sixth inning, leaving Wheaton one more frame in which to tie or take the lead. But another three-up, three-down series put the seal on a low-scoring, defensive victory for Baldwin Wallace and denied Wheaton a second win in as many days.
The two sides each posted four hits for the game, while the Yellow Jackets committed the only error of the contest in the first inning.
Iris Jones started the second game in the circle and conceded just two hits and one run from the 14 batters she pitched to while also collecting a strikeout. Kemp pitched the final three frames for Wheaton this afternoon, two of which saw the Thunder blank their Ohio counterparts.
Nahorniak was 2-3 at the plate and scored one run, and Weaver also contributed a hit and a run this afternoon. Figueroa accounted for Wheaton's fourth hit in Tuesday's second game.
