COLUMBUS, Ohio – In their final home games of the 2016 season, Ohio Dominican's softball team rallied for a 5-4 victory over Ferris State in the opener before suffering a narrow 2-1 setback in game two Sunday afternoon in GLIAC play.

A three-run inside the park homer by sophomore Taylor Kline (Bellville, Ohio), the first homer of her career, proved to be the difference in the opener.

ODU had a quick start, as Kline and senior Montana Fishel (Gahanna, Ohio) reached on infield hits, and junior Kelly Wallace (Oshkosh, Wisc.) slapped a ball past the circle to score both and give the Panthers a 2-0 lead in the first.

Ferris State took advantage of a trio of Panther errors in the third frame to go in front 3-2.

With two outs in the fourth, ODU took advantage of a Bulldog miscue to regain the lead. Senior Brier Sanner (Hartville, Ohio) singled and freshman Kylie Dempsey (Liberty Township, Ohio) reached on a fielder's choice after a missed tag of Sanner running to second base.

Kline then turned on an inside pitch and ripped it just fair inside of first base, and legged out an inside the park home run as the ball wound up in the right field corner.

The Bulldogs got a run back in the sixth, but freshman Abby Lamping (Cleves, Ohio) induced a groundout back to the mound to strand runners on first and third and keep ODU in front 5-4.

Lamping, who was the starting pitcher but re-entered the circle in the sixth, then set the side down in order in the seventh to pick up her first save of the season.

Kline had two hits and scored twice to pace the offense, while junior Casey Murdoch (Morrow, Ohio) picked up the win with 2.2 innings of relief, allowing one run.

The Panthers scored first in game two on Sanner's sacrifice fly in the second inning, but the Bulldogs countered with two runs in the bottom half to take a 2-1 lead.

ODU's best chance to answer came in the fifth when Kline reached third with two outs, but a liner to second ended the threat.

The Panthers tallied just two hits in the second game.

Lamping was tagged with the loss, despite allowing just five hits herself. She struck out four and threw just 68 pitches (48 strikes).

The Panthers hit the road for a doubleheader at Malone at 3 p.m. on Tuesday.

Contact: Scott Miles
miless@ohiodominican.edu