LITTLE RIVER, SO. CAR. - The 2026 Madison College softball season got off to a nice start Thursday with a pair of wins on the opening day of their annual spring break trip. The WolfPack repeated last season's first day by taking down PSU Dubois with a 2-1 final in the opening game, marking the sixth consecutive year the Pack has won their first game of the season. Then they secured a 4-2 victory over Patrick & Henry Community College, who is ranked #2 in the NJCAA Division III Poll.
Game #1: Madison College 2, PSU Dubois 1
The first half inning of the season saw sophomore pitcher
Lauryn Etienne strike out the side, including the final two batters to strand the bases loaded. The Lady Lions opened the scoring in the third when the WolfPack went to freshman pitcher
Sophie Golembiewski. After a pair of walks and two passed balls, PSU Dubois executed a successful double steal to go ahead 1-0.
The WolfPack loaded the bases in the bottom of the third, but were unable to push in a run. Madison took the lead in the bottom of the fifth with two runs two hits and an error. Freshmen
Kelsey Meverden and
Aubrey Juga reached with back-to-back singles to open the inning. Second year outfielder
Raegen Schwarz moved both runners over with a sacrifice, allowing
Macie Studzinski, a sophomore catcher, to drive in both runners with a ground ball that resulted in an error by the Lady Lions second baseman to make it 2-1.
Golembiewski (1-0) worked five innings allowing one unearned run on two hits and five walks. The lefthander from Monroe, Wisconsin, struck out four en route to her first career victory. Etienne fanned five batters in her two innings of work with one hit and two walks allowed.
Juga, a shortstop from Kenosha, Wisconsin, went 2 for 3 with a walk and a run scored. Meverden, a native of Wausau, Wisconsin, scored a run on one hit. Sophomore
Shelby Brooks was 2 for 4.
Game #2: Madison College 4, #2 Patrick & Henry Community College 2
The Patriots jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first thanks to three singles off starter
Gretta Lewis. Madison pulled even in the third with a two-out rally that saw left fielder
Dalana Trumpy and second baseman
Cathryn Zegadlo post consecutive singles. Following a walk of
Kelsey Meverden to fill the bases, first year shorstop
Sadie Svendsen drew a walk to force in a run. A wild pitch during the subsequent at bat allowed Zegadlo to touch home for a 2-2 tie before the Pack stranded the bases loaded.
Cassie Coffey, a freshman from Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, put the WolfPack up 3-2 in the fourth after hitting a single up the middle to lead off. She then advanced on a sacrifice, moved to third on a passed ball, and scored courtesy of a wild pitch. She struck again in the fifth to give Madison College at 4-2 advantage. At the plate with two outs and two runners on, the catcher drove a line drive single up the middle to drive in
Raegen Schwarz from second base.
Coffey finished 2 for 3 with a run scored and one run batted in. Zegadlo, Schwarz, and Trumpy each had a hit and a run scored. Svendsen earned her first career RBI.
Lewis, a freshman from Holladay, Utah, tossed all seven innings in the circle, surrendering two earned runs on seven hits and two walks. The righty also recorded her first three collegiate strikeouts in the first ever meeting between the two programs.
Up Next:
Madison College (2-0) plays another doubleheader on Friday, March 13 against Henry Ford College (2-2) and St. Charles Community College (7-3). The WolfPack have never played the Hawks before, and lost an early-season game to the Cougars last spring. Game one of the day begins at 9:00 a.m. ET/8:00 a.m. CT, followed by a 1:00 p.m. ET/noon CT start for the finale. Game can be followed and watched via the GameChanger app.
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