UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio – The Geneva College softball team stepped out of conference play on Friday afternoon for a non-conference doubleheader at John Carroll, and junior Molly Shelley had a big day offensively, including a leadoff home run in each game, to lead the women to victories of 2-1 and 13-4 in six innings.  Geneva improved to 24-6 overall this season.

The first game was a pitchers' duel, with senior Sophia Tvaroch continuing her standout season in the circle.  Shelley gave Tvaroch a very quick early run when she battled the pitcher to leadoff the game before driving a deep shot over the left field fence for a home run.

Shelley generated another run in the top the third on a very familiar sequence for the standout centerfielder this season.  She led off the inning with a single, stole second and third base and then scored on a throwing error by the catcher on her steal of third base.

That was enough run support for Tvaroch, who took a shutout into the seventh inning, retiring the first two batters before a double and a single gave the Blue Streaks their first run.  Tvaroch closed out the game, though, by inducing a pop-up to secure the 2-1 victory.

Tvaroch picked up her 10^th win of the season with another sterling outing, pitching all seven innings while giving up five hits and one run, striking out six.

Shelley supplied most of the offense, going 2-for-4 with a home run, two runs scored and two stolen bases.  Senior Justine Robbins also added two hits.

In game two, Shelley sent the second pitch of the game over the right-centerfield fence for another leadoff home run.  Geneva added to its lead when Robbins scored senior Lexi Zanic on an RBI-double, and after Robbins stole third, she scored on an RBI-groundout from junior Callie Mangan.

Sophomore Addison Zimmerman got her first start this season in game two, and John Carroll scored two quick runs while putting another runner at third with no outs, but Zimmerman fought her way out of the jam without allowing any further damage.

However, John Carroll used a two-out rally to score twice more in the second inning to give the Blue Streaks their first lead of the day, 4-3.

The Geneva offense responded to its deficit in a big way in the third inning, scoring five times.  Zanic opened the inning with a single, and Robbins followed with another double to put runners at second and third.  Mangan brought Zanic in with a sacrifice fly, and sophomore Stacey Rodriguez brought home Robbins with a single.  Later in the inning, freshman Mia Yenges and junior Kyra Wilcox each provided RBI-singles to bring home the final three runs of the frame, pushing the Golden Tornadoes back ahead, 8-4.

Sophomore Micaiah Armstrong relived Zimmerman to start the third, and she provided Geneva with effective relief.  In fact, three Golden Tornado relievers shut out John Carroll over the final four innings.

Geneva added to its lead in the fifth with an RBI-single from Shelley, and the Golden Tornadoes put the game away in the sixth with four more runs.  Senior Jorja Koerner singled home Zanic, Robbins stole home, junior Malerie Branson singled to drive in a third run, and Yenges provided an RBI-groundout for the final run of the inning to close out the scoring, 13-4.

Armstrong earned her second win of the season with 2.1 innings of scoreless relief, giving up just two hits.

Shelley again led the offense, going 3-for-3 with a home run, two RBIs and a stolen base.  Zanic also had a big game, going 3-for-4 with three runs scored, while Robbins went 2-for-3 with three runs scored and an RBI.  Rodriguez added two hits and two runs scored, along with an RBI.  In total, the women finished with 15 hits.

Geneva will return to conference play tomorrow with an early morning start at Chatham, with their doubleheader scheduled to start at 10:00 a.m.