Box Score

Grinnell, IA – The Prairie Fire battled the weather and Grinnell College and came away with a 10-7 road victory on Sunday.

Knox and Grinnell were scheduled to play a doubleheader, but the second game was postponed because of rain and poor playing conditions.  It will not be made up.

The win was the third straight for the Prairie Fire (9-17, 1-6 MWC) and fourth in the team’s last five games.  It also marked the end of an incredible hitting streak by first-year infielder Rhiannon Neuville-Norton (Eugene, OR, South Eugene).

Neuville-Norton led off the game with a single, her 13th consecutive hit dating back to a win at home on April 24 against MacMurray College.  The streak ended when she hit into a fielder’s choice in the bottom of the second.

Neuville-Norton was 14-for-17 at the plate with 11 runs scored during the hitting streak, which boosted her average over 100 points.  She finished the game against the Pioneers 1-for-3 with three runs scored and is batting a team-leading .387, which is fifth in the Midwest Conference.

Both teams scored a pair of runs in the first inning.  Knox grabbed a 5-2 lead with three in the top of the third only to see Grinnell (2-26, 0-7 MWC) take a 6-5 lead with runs in the third, fourth, and fifth innings.

The Prairie Fire reclaimed the lead for good at 7-6 with two runs in the top of the sixth on an RBI double by sophomore Amber Eisha (South Wilmington, IL, Gardner-South Wilmington) and a sacrifice fly by junior Avecena Hollingsworth (Tigard, OR, Tigard) that scored Neuville-Norton, who was hit by a pitch earlier in the inning.

Knox plated three more runs in the seventh for a 10-6 advantage.  Sophomore Jordan Shaffer (Atlanta, IL, Olympia) drove home a run with a single, Eisha added a run scoring hit, and Neuville-Norton scored on a wild pitch.

Grinnell scored the final run of the game in the bottom of the seventh.

Eisha earned the win in the circle and improved to 6-9.  She allowed five earned runs on nine hits and struck out eight in seven innings pitched.

Eisha led the way on offense with four hits and three RBI.  Two first-year players, Jenna Butler (Downers Grove, IL, Downers Grove North) and Brittney Price (Wyoming, IL, Stark County), added two hits apiece, and sophomore Anna Lemen (Cincinnati, OH, Cincinnati Country Day) was 1-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored.

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