COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Notre Dame Softball team dropped Tuesday night’s midweek matchup on the road to Ohio State, 3-2. The Irish drop to 11-13 on the season.
Olivia Levitt hit her first career homer in the second inning, a shot out to right center to open the scoring for the Irish. Notre Dame has now homered in six straight games.
Sydny Poeck and Addison Amaral both reached base three times. Poeck singled twice to left and walked once while Amaral walked twice and had a single up the middle in the seventh.
How it happened
Notre Dame managed to get its first two runners of the game on base, but stranded both of them in scoring position after Ohio State starter Kennedy Kay got a foul out to end the early Irish threat.
The Buckeyes scored two in the bottom of the first after an RBI double into the left center field gap and a run on a ground out to first right after.
Levitt wasted no time countering those runs, blasting a home run off the top of the right center field fence and over in the top of the second to cut the deficit to one.
Brianne Weiss took over in the circle to start the top of the third. The freshman was coming off a 14-strikeout weekend at Louisville and threw a scoreless third inning.
The Buckeyes got one off Weiss in the bottom of the fourth, a solo home run to right that pushed the lead back to two after four innings.
The Irish got their second run of the day off a Paige Cowley pinch-hit RBI single in the top of the fifth. Cowley has been the most effective pinch hitter for Notre Dame, hitting .667 in the role. It was the fifth RBI of the year for the junior.
After two leadoff base runners for Ohio State in the top of the sixth, Micaela Kastor took over for Brianne Weiss. Weiss finished the day allowing only one run over three innings. She struck out three.
Kastor, making only her second appearance out of the bullpen this year, struck out her first two batters for the first outs of the bottom of the sixth. After a walk to load the bases, Kastor got a fly out from one of the NCAA top hitters in Jasmyn Burns to masterfully escape the Buckeye threat.
After getting a couple runners on in the top of the seventh, Notre Dame couldn’t muster enough off Lorin Boutte, who got the save for Ohio State.
Notre Dame heads to Raleigh, North Carolina this weekend to continue conference play at NC State. Friday night’s game against the Wolfpack is set for 6:00 p.m. and will air nationally on ACC Network.