This past week, the Case Western Reserve University softball team swept both visiting Ohio teams in their first home games of the 2025 season. Following the weekend’s games, the Spartans currently stand 14-7 overall and 1-2 in conference play.
The Spartans opened Thursday’s doubleheader with a six-inning shutout victory against Capital University. The first run of the day came from fourth-year catcher Katelyn Lamm after a sacrifice fly in the first inning. Lamm followed up with a second and third run during the third inning and fifth inning, respectively, as she plated graduate student infielder KaiLi Gross both times. The Spartans increased their lead with a fourth run after a groundout from second-year infielder Kaelyn Zusi. CWRU continued to advance on the scoreboard in the sixth inning after third-year infielder Elizabeth Berry notched a run-scoring single after Gross stole second base, and in a fantastic conclusion to the first home game, second-year outfielder/catcher Alaina Steffes cleared a three-run homer. During the first contest, fourth-year pitcher Lexi Miskey notched a season high of 11 strikeouts and only allowed a single hit and walk, lowering her run average to 2.70.
During the second game, the first Spartan points came both from Capital’s throwing errors in the second and third innings, respectively. During the fifth inning, second-year infielder Karen Potts hit a no-out single, followed by a homer by Gross later in the inning to double their advantage to 4. During the top of the sixth inning, the Comets scored their first point, which was met with 4 runs from the Spartans during the bottom of the sixth inning. After a third run scored on a Capital throwing error, first-year outfielder Laura Meoli recorded her first career hit, RBI and home run as she extended the score to 7-1. Potts followed up with a run-scoring single, and the Spartans secured their victory after Meoli made her pitching debut in the final inning while only allowing one run.
Despite the dreary Cleveland showers on Sunday and the postponement of their games, the Spartans did not allow the weather to affect their play, dominating Denison University. Big Red notched a single-run homerun to take the first point of the doubleheader during the second inning; however, they were unable to match the momentum of the Spartans and did not score again across the two contests.
Following the Denison point, Berry and second-year outfielder Nylah Durham both hit doubles during the third and fourth inning, respectively, with Berry evening the score after plating Potts and Durham extending the lead to 3-1. In the fifth and final inning of game one, the Spartans added 6 more runs and ended the game by run-rule.
With the momentum from the first game, the Spartan offense continued to dominate with another 6-run inning as they opened game two. During game two, the Spartans recorded a total of 4 home runs, with 2 from Gross and the others from Steffes and fourth-year infielder Isabella Russo. With her second home run, Gross achieved her 30th career home run and broke the tie for second most in program history. CWRU achieved their second shutout of the season with a 10-0 win in five innings.
In the circle, fourth-year pitcher Kylie Hosey struck out 4 batters in four innings, and Meoli achieved her first collegiate strikeout in the scoreless fifth inning.
This weekend, the Spartans will be facing No. 21-ranked Emory University. The Eagles recently finished their second consecutive sweep against UAA opponents with 4-3, 13-3 and 6-2 wins against Brandeis University and 5-1, 5-3 and 11-7 wins against Carnegie Mellon University.