Softball a hit over break

There was no spring break for the Kent State softball team. In fact, the Flashes spent the week breaking records instead of taking time off.

They ended the week with a seven-game winning streak to push their record to 17-11, 4-0 Mid-American Conference and gave Kent State coach Karen Linder her 290th overall win.

The milestone gives Linder the most wins of any Kent State softball coach. She surpassed Sue Lilley, who held the top spot with 289 wins in her 10 years with the program.

The win that pushed Linder to the top was a convincing 14-0 victory over Toledo in the second game of a doubleheader Saturday at Scott Park.

The Flashes exploded offensively, led by sophomore Chelsey Jones and freshman Amy Hair who each contributed a grand slam to the effort.

Senior pitcher Brittney Robinson (7-6) allowed four hits in the shutout.

In the first game against the Rockets, the Flashes won, 7-2.

Junior outfielder Corey Houk smashed a two-run home run in the top of the seventh inning, and freshman pitcher Kylie Reynolds (8-4) was one away from breaking her own record by striking out 17 Toledo batters.

Kent State opened up MAC play Friday by sweeping Bowling Green in another doubleheader.

Reynolds started the first game and had five strikeouts, allowed four hits and one run in the 3-1 victory.

Junior outfielder Kim Hamilton scored off a single from Robinson to give the Flashes the lead in the fourth, and after Bowling Green tied it up in the fifth, Hamilton responded with a home run in the sixth to regain the lead.

Kent State won, 4-2, in the second game.

Robinson did a little bit of everything for the Flashes. In the circle, she held the Falcons to three hits and two runs, and struck out five. She also hit a solo home run in the top of the first.

Bowling Green’s Hayley Wiemer hit her second home run of the game to pull the Falcons within two, but they were unable to produce anything else.

Before the Flashes got off to their undefeated start in the MAC, they headed to Florida to play in their last inter-conference tournament of the season. In the Stetson Tournament, Kent State began with a 6-0 victory over Princeton.

The Flashes then dropped two against Cornell and Lipscomb, 7-4 and 4-3, respectively.

Kent State followed the consecutive losses with the start of their current winning streak. They got the split versus Cornell with a 6-0 win, beat Princeton 4-1 and beat Stetson, 2-1, to finish out the tournament.

The Flashes will return to Kent at 3 p.m. Wednesday for their home opener, a doubleheader against Cleveland State.

Contact softball reporter Deanna Stevens at [email protected].