Mid-American Conference

AKRON, Ohio – The top-seeded Miami RedHawks are moving on in the winner's bracket of the MAC Softball Championship after defeating No. 5 Central Michigan, 7-0. Miami will take on No. 3 Ohio at 3:30 p.m. ET tomorrow. The Chippewas will take on the winner of No. 2 Kent State/No.6 Ball State in an elimination game tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Courtney Vierstra pitched the complete-game shutout in the circle for Miami. She gave up three hits and three walks while striking out 13 batters.

Central Michigan loaded the bases in the top of the first inning but two strikeouts from Vierstra got Miami out of the inning without any damage done.

The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the third inning. Hannah Obrey drew the lead-off walk and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Morgan Lott. Obrey scored the first run of the ball game on an RBI double from Jenny Vasquez. Ashton Slone scored Vasquez with a single that gave Miami a 2-0 lead after three innings of play.

The RedHawks added three more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to increase its lead to 5-0. Lott led off with a double before Central Michigan switched pitchers. Vasquez reached base on an error that allowed Lott to advance to third. Slone was intentionally walked to load the bases with nobody out. Johniann Wahl hit an RBI single to score Lott. Kara Leckinger was hit by a pitch that brought Vasquez home. Haeley Tran brought home the final run of the inning with a one-out sacrifice fly to score Slone.

Miami scored twice in the bottom of the sixth to cap scoring for the game at 7-0. Obrey hit a lead-off double, advanced to third on a passed ball and scored on a sacrifice fly from Vasquez. Slone hit Miami's first home run of the MAC Tournament, her seventh of the season, to score the final run of the game.

Slone (2-of-3, 2 RBI, 2 runs, home run) and Vasquez (2-of-3, 2 RBI, 2 runs, double) led the Miami offense with seven different RedHawks recording a hit. Obrey also scored twice.