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'Hawks hit road to wrap up season

Freshman Lauren Odom has a chance to finish above the .300 mark for the season. (Michael Griggs)
Freshman Lauren Odom has a chance to finish above the .300 mark for the season. (Michael Griggs)

Michael Solomon

Freshman Lauren Odom has a chance to finish above the .300 mark for the season. (Michael Griggs)

The Miami University softball team entered its final home game Tuesday against Eastern Kentucky, looking for a win going into the last weekend of conference play.

The Red and White had a tough weekend on the road at Ohio and Akron, going 1-3, which dropped their conference record to 13-7.

With conference leaders Ball State looming over the weekend, the 'Hawks looked to gain confidence and a win at their last home game of the season.

After Eastern Kentucky opened the scoring in the top of the second inning, Miami answered right away in their half of the inning when sophomore Kathryn Russette singled, scoring Lindsay Randall.

More runs came in the fourth when seniors Kelly Cabana and Alexis Javier drove in runs to make it 3-1.

Eastern Kentucky cut the lead to 3-2 in the top half of the fifth inning, but that was the closest the game would get.

In the bottom half of the inning, the RedHawks loaded the bases.

With three on and none out, junior Alicia Hogl drove a pitch over the left field wall for a grand slam, and her third home run of the year.

The grand slam made it 7-2 'Hawks. Freshman hurler Jessica Simpson ended out the game with two perfect innings, and the RedHawks earned a victory in their last home game of the season.

Junior pitcher Meredith Linch earned her ninth victory of the season, pitching five innings and giving up only one earned run.

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"It was great to get a win in our last game here," Javier said. "It was great to see Alicia get that hit, it was just good all around. It is a good feeling to see Miami softball do what we do best and get a win. Eastern Kentucky is a good team. They had a good game against us last year, and we came out and knew what we wanted to do against them."

The RedHawks improved their record to 28-20 on the season, and gave them some confidence going into their weekend series at Ball State.

"I think that this really just gave us some momentum because they (Eastern Kentucky) were not in our conference," Hogl said. "We were supposed to play a doubleheader, but both teams are pretty beat up at this point in the season. I think we were just looking to make sure that our defense is clean, our offense good and that we are working together. Our communication was strong, and it was a feel good win going into the weekend."

The games this weekend start at 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.

After their trip to Muncie, the RedHawks head to Akron May 6 to begin the MAC championships.