TUCSON, Ariz. --- The Park University Gilbert softball team (9-9) split a pair of games against the Indiana University Wesleyan Wildcats (2-4), Monday afternoon at the Tucson Invitational Games in Tucson, Ariz.
The Buccaneers picked up their first win against a ranked opponent this season in Game 1, as the Wildcats ranked No. 20 in the NAIA Top 25 preseason poll. IWU responded with a 18-2 win over Park-Gilbert in Game 2.
Monday afternoon marked the first-ever meeting between these two programs.
Game 1: Park 5 IWU 3
In Park-Gilbert's third game this season against a ranked opponent, the Buccaneers took a commanding 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
Catcher Noelle Gumm recorded her 18th RBI of the season with a double to right field. On the very next at-bat, first baseman Anna Chavez drove in a pair of runs with her fifth homer of the season.
Chavez currently leads the Great Southwest Athletic Conference in home runs, and Gumm leads the GSAC in runs brought in.
The Wildcats responded in the bottom of the first with a pair of runs.
After a scoreless second, third, and fourth innings, Chavez logged another RBI with a single to the left side to make the score 4-2 in the top of the fifth. In the top of the seventh, Gumm then dove in her second run of the game with an infield hit as IWU put up a run of its own in the bottom of the frame.
Yazmine Bernal (5-4) pitched all seven innings in Game 1. Bernal threw a total of 144 pitches, five strikeouts, while allowing eight hits.
Gumm finished 3-4 at the plate in Game 1 with two RBIs and a run scored. Chavez went 2-3 with a home run and three RBIs. Right fielder Ari Fjeldsted, the GSAC's leader in base hits, went 2-3 at the plate with three runs scored.
Game 2: IWU 18 Park 2
The Bucs were not as fortunate in the second game of this doubleheader, as the Wildcats won by 16 runs in five innings. Indiana Wesleyan scored three runs in the first, six in the second, two in the fourth, and seven in the fifth.
IWU established an 18-0 lead through the top of the fifth, and the Bucs responded in the bottom of the inning with a pair of runs. Left fielder Jada Montoya recorded an RBI with an infield single, and catcher Bri Titus got walked with the bases loaded.
Buccaneers pitcher Samara Romero (0-1) made her season in the circle debut upon recovering from an injury that sidelined her for the first 17 games. Grace Jump and Daysy Juarez came in relief to close out this contest.
Left fielder Madi Ban, who entered at the top of the third, went 2-2 at the plate with one run scored.
Up Next
The Buccaneers gear up for conference play as they hit the field again this weekend. They will face the Benedictine University Mesa Redhawks (5-9) in a four-game series this Friday and Saturday at Chandler-Gilbert Community College in Chandler, Ariz. First pitch on Friday is scheduled for 4 p.m. MST, while Game 2 is slated to begin at 6 p.m. MST.
