Rensselaer, Ind. – The UW-Parkside softball team ran into some tough pitching on Saturday in dropping a doubleheader to Saint Joseph's College, 2-0 and 4-3. The Pumas limited the Rangers to five hits during the doubleheader and improved to 14-4 overall and 6-0 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. Parkside fell to 1-9 in the league.
 
The Rangers' Kristin Kleinmeyer and Kelynn Sporer combined to allow just three earned themselves over the two games but absorbed a pair of tough-luck losses. Parkside will finish its ten-game road trip on Sunday at sixth-ranked Indianapolis.
 
Below are the recaps of Saturday's games at Saint Joseph's.
 
Game One (Box Score)
Kleinmeyer and Megan Ramey both pitched impressively in the opener matching zeroes for the first three-plus innings.
 
Parkside put two on second when Lauren Vitiello was hit by a pitch and Natalie Shank walked with two away. Ramey came back to get Kira Cooper to end the inning and keep the game scoreless.
 
Diana Gordon singled with two outs in the fourth inning to try to start a rally. Unfortunately that was the Rangers only hit, as well as the last base runner Ramey would allow.
 
The Pumas would get the only runs of the game in the bottom of the fourth, the only blemish on the scorecard for Kleinmeyer.
 
A single and double to start the frame put runners on second and third with nobody out. Shawn Hoskins followed with a sacrifice fly to give the Pumas the lead. The Rangers then uncorked a wild pitch, allowing the runner from third to score, and make it 2-0.
 
From there it was all Ramey who retired the final ten batters, doing it with just one strikeout over the final three innings (six for the game), to earn her eighth win of the season against just one defeat.
 
Kleinmeyer pitched a complete game for the Rangers allowing just two runs on five hits. She struck out one against zero walks allowed.
 
Game Two (Box Score)
In the nightcap it was another pitchers' duel with each team putting together a big inning to account for all the scoring. Kelynn Sporer and Hayley Schneider for UW-Parkside and Sarah Franklin for Saint Joseph's combined to allow just three earned runs, but in the end the Pumas had enough for the win.
 
The Rangers got hits from Colleen Cummings and Ashley Nowdomski in the first two innings but couldn't put anything together against Franklin. That allowed the Pumas time to move in front with a four-run third.
 
Saint Joseph's got a single from the nine-hole hitter before two errors gave the Pumas the lead. The second allowed a run to score and put two runners on. After a strikeout, the next batter drew a walk to fill up the bases.
 
Sporer then issued a wild pitch to move everyone up and make it 2-0. She responded by retiring the next hitter for the second out. But Tiffany Gibson cashed in two key runs with a single, giving the Pumas a 4-0 lead.
 
The Rangers struggling offense came alive in the sixth after Frankin had retired 11 straight hitters. Cecie Portillo led off the inning with a single. Cummings and Lexi Sotiros both reached via error, with Sotiros' bringing in Portillo, for Parkside's first run.
 
Franklin got the next hitter but Vitiello came up bit with a two-run single to score both Cummings and Sotiros, and make it 4-3.
 
Schneider tossed a perfect sixth to give the Rangers a chance. But Franklin came back to retire Parkside in the top of the seventh, 1-2-3, to end the game.
 
Four different Rangers recorded a hit with Vitiello earning two RBI. Sporer took the loss allowing one earned run (four total) on four hits in three innings. Schneider pitched the final three frames allowing three hits without a run.
 
UW-Parkside is set for the final doubleheader of the trip, an 11:00 a.m. central start in Indianapolis on Sunday. The Greyhounds are ranked sixth in the nation with a record of 20-1 and 8-0 in the GLVC.