Contact: Nathan Cameron, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications, 563-588-7243
 
PEORIA, Ill. (Feb. 24, 2022) – The Loras College softball team (2-0, 0-0 A-R-C) opened their 2022 campaign in Peoria, Ill. on Thursday night as they competed in the first day of the Blue Angel Invite. The Duhawks snagged two straight shutouts, downing the Knox College Prairie Fire (0-1, 0-0 Midwest) in five innings by the eight run rule before breezing past Edgewood College (0-1, 0-0 NACC) as the Duhawks recorded their first no-hitter since 2012, led by freshman pitcher Ashlyn Hemm.  
 
The first game of the day saw the Duhawks go up against the Prairie Fire from Knox College and the Duhawks wasted no time putting runs on the board. After a three up, three down top of the first inning, the Duhawks' bats came alive as Ellie Schill started the inning off with a leadoff single before Abby Jones followed suit hitting her own, advancing Schill to third. With runners on the corners, Taylor Donnell lined a two RBI double to clear the bases. With Donnell in scoring position and one out in the inning, Nicole Bendig hit a sacrifice fly to center field that scored Donnell from third after a sacrifice fly from Jadyn Anderson advanced her a base a batter prior, bringing the score to 3-0 at the end of the first inning.

The top of the second inning saw Loras again put away three outs, all on strikeouts by Hemm. The Duhawks tacked on three more runs in the bottom half of the inning on a solo homerun off the bat of Claire Peachey before Emily Monahan followed with a single. Monahan moved into scoring position after stealing second and crossed home on a fielder's choice from Schill for the second run of the inning. With Jones at the plate, Schill stole second and then third only to score on a sacrifice ground out to the pitcher to bring the score to 6-0 after two innings of play.

For the third straight inning, Hemm struck out the side in the top of the third inning, paving the way for the Duhawks to score another on an RBI single from Clare Murphy that scored Anderson, who led the inning off with a single before advancing to second on an error and stealing third.

Holding the Prairie Fire to a walk in the top of the fourth before striking out the side again, the Duhawks scored the game-ending run in the bottom of the fourth on a solo homerun from Donnell as the Duhawks closed out the game in the top of the fifth inning by the eight run rule to earn their first win of the season in dominant fashion.

Hemm tallied a staggering 12 strikeouts in 3.0 innings in the circle, only accruing one walk with no hits allowed in the game before Kayla Stich closed out the game with one hit in 1.0 innings pitched. Donnell led the Duhawks offensively going 2-for-3 at the plate, driving in three runs and scoring two of her own as the Duhawks amassed 10 hits in the game, only recording one strikeout at the plate.

In the second game of the night, the Duhawks took on the Eagles from Edgewood College, seeing Hemm get the start in the circle for the second time of the day. Hemm dominated early in the game, recording five strikeouts in the first two innings of scoreless ball before the Duhawks put two runs on the board in the top of the third inning. Schill led the inning off with an infield single before the Eagles retired two batters, bringing Anderson to the plate. With two outs in the inning and Schill on second after a sacrifice bunt advanced her to scoring position, Schill scored on a single to center field off of Anderson's bat. A batter later, Bendig put two runners on base with an infield single, immediately followed by Murphy who singled down the left field line, only to advance on a muffed throw from the catcher that advanced runners and scored Anderson to put Loras up 2-0 after three innings.

The Duhawks held the Eagles scoreless in the bottom half of the third inning and put two more runs on the board in the top of the fourth on a leadoff single down the right field line that put Whitney Leipold on base, advancing to second a batter later on a Monahan sacrifice bunt that saw Monahan reach first on a fielding error by the catcher. A batter later, Schill moved runners on a sacrifice bunt to put Monahan and Leipold in scoring position before Jones loaded the bases on a walk. With bases loaded, Donnell stepped to the plate and grounded out to the shortstop but earning an RBI as Leipold came home on the play. A wild pitch a batter later brought Monahan home from third to bring the score to 4-0 at the end of the fourth inning.

The top of the fifth inning saw the Duhawks score two more as Alyssa Hughes led the inning off to a single to center field before head coach Ashley Winter turned to Hannah Wubben to pinch run. Wubben was thrown out at second a batter later as Murphy reached on a fielder's choice. Hemm stepped into the batter's box and put two on the base path on a single to center field before Peachey loaded the bases a batter later after drawing a walk. Grace Houghton came in to pinch hit for Monahan and drew a walk to score Murphy before Schill did the same, scoring Hemm and bringing the score to its final of 6-0.

Hemm threw 5.0 innings in the game, tallying 8 strikeouts to bring her total to 20 on the day before Stich made an appearance in relief, coming together to post the Duhawks' first no-hitter since Apr. 18, 2012 in a 1-0 victory over Coe College. At the plate, Loras recorded eight hits in the game with eight Duhawks recording a hit each.

The Duhawks continue play in the Blue Angels Invite on Friday, Feb. 25 as they square off against Lawrence University at 10:00 AM and Elmhurst University at 12:30 PM at the Louisville Slugger Complex in Peoria, Ill.