In its fifth and final game of the weekend, Syracuse (3-2) beat Western Illinois (2-1) 4-3 at the Total Sports Control Invitational in Rosemont, Illinois Sunday morning. The Orange tallied 10 hits and two home runs while pitchers Sydney O’Hara and Jocelyn Cater held the Fighting Leathernecks to three hits.

The Orange struck quickly off a Corinne Ozanne two-run home run — her third home run of the weekend — in the top of the first. She later walked to lead off the third before being pulled for pinch runner Annie Toczynski.

O’Hara and Rachel Burkhardt followed with singles to load the bases before third baseman Danielle Chitkowski walked to score Toczynski, making it 3-0.

O’Hara retired the first 13 batters she faced, striking out four, before allowing a triple in the fifth inning. An error by Cater, who was playing first base, allowed the run to score. O’Hara was credited with one hit, one earned run and six strikeouts in six innings of work.

Cater came in for O’Hara in the sixth, getting the first two outs before hitting shortstop Sammy Marshall with a pitch. After Marshall stole second, first baseman Teagan Walsh singled to score the run.

Leading off the seventh, Wambold homered to left, giving SU a 4-2 lead and a cushion for Cater in the bottom of the inning. After walking the first two batters, Cater gave up a run-scoring single to center fielder Tierney Bottino and Western Illinois was within one.

With none out and a runner on third, O’Hara went back to the mound to close out the game. After a fielder’s choice to home, O’Hara struck out the last two batters to finish it off.

Compiled by Jack Rose, staff writer, jlrose@syr.edu

Published on February 8, 2015 at 1:35 pm