KISSIMMEE, Florida - March 11, 2025 - It was a tale of two games for Hiram softball on Tuesday at the Fortune Road Fields. The Terriers were one out away from beating Otterbein in what shaped out to be a 12-9 loss, but eventually bounced back and cruised past a tough Wheaton (MA) team, 7-1.
Darian Kanno and Hannah Marlow had a combined eight hits on the day, which included a pair of home runs in the win over the Lyons. In the circle, Kanno also logged a complete game with zero earned runs for the second straight day, giving her 14 dominant innings of work in the early stages of the season.
Game 1 Recap
Hiram posted its best offensive performance of the young season to start the day, tallying nine runs on 12 hits against the Cardinals. Six of those runs were scattered across the first five innings, lifting the Terriers to a 6-2 lead during that span.
Angel Santellan drove in three runs, including an RBI single in the first inning and a two-run double in the fourth inning. The senior officially eclipsed 100 career RBI (reached 101), joining Chastine Romanello (129), Jessica Bolanz (120) and Giselle Bahena (119) as the only players in program history to reach 100+ RBI.
Otterbein hit the gas pedal in the final two frames, scoring 10 runs on nine hits to tie the game at 6-6 and eventually reclaim a 12-9 lead. Hiram got a pair of RBI doubles from the sophomore tandem of Haven Papineau and Marlow, but the clutch hitting of the Cardinals proved to be the difference in the highly entertaining affair.
Game 2 Recap
The action didn't follow the same back-and-forth rhythm in the second game, with the pitching of Kanno and the team's first two home runs of the season leading to a 7-1 win over Wheaton (MA). The Lyons entered play with a 4-1 record, which included an 11-4 win over the same W&J team that had beaten the Terriers on Monday.
Kanno immediately gave Hiram a boost with an RBI double to the deepest part of the ballpark in the first inning. She then stepped into the circle and didn't allow a hit until the fifth inning, finishing with a final line of 7 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 7 K.
Kanno returned to the batter's box in the third inning and lifted her first home run of the season to left field. The two-run shot brought home Marlow, who doubled to the left-center field gap to begin the two-out rally. Kanno now has 13 career home runs, trailing only Jessica Bolanz (24) and Chastine Romanello (16) on the program's all-time leaderboard.
Marlow put her name on that all-time leaderboard in the seventh inning, belting her first career home run to carve out a 7-1 lead and a well-rounded victory to end Day 2 at The Spring Games.
What's Next
Hiram will take the day off on Wednesday before returning to action on Thursday; the team will play two games against Penn State Behrend at 12:15 p.m. and Mount Union at 2:30 p.m. in Bartow, FL.
