Wheeling, W. Va. – In their final home game of the 2024 season, the Wheeling University Softball team (9-41, 4-22) hosted Fairmont State on Sunday afternoon. The Cardinals battled across both games, but in the end would fall to Fairmont State to wrap up the weekend. They fell in game one 4-3 and battled throughout game two before falling 8-5 to end the weekend and send the Cardinals on the road for the final week of the regular season.

Wheeling had their hands full on Sunday as they went up against Fairmont St. who currently sits on top in the MEC softball standings, but the Cardinals have been playing much better as of late and they would not go down without a fight in both games that were very close.

The first game of the double-header was not the start they were looking for as Fairmont would take a 3-0 lead in the top of the second inning with Alexa Andrew hitting a triple that would drive in 2 runners and then Grace Sobeck would ground out which led to another runner scoring.

 Wheeling would however come back in the bottom of the 5th with a Natalie Stoner sacrifice flyout which brought in a runner to make it 3-1, Makie Paxson would score on an error, and Anna Florczak would tie it with a single. In the top of the 7th Katy Darnell would flyout to bring in a runner which would be the winner with the final score being 4-3.

The second game was very similar to the first with the score being very close and Fairmont taking the lead in the end. This game like the first would not start well for Wheeling and Ryleigh Peters as Fairmont would get started early with Courtney Moy singling bringing in the first run of the game and then the third was an offensive explosion for both teams with Emily rigs grounding out scoring a second run, Courtney Moy hitting another RBI, Katy Darnell grounding out to bring a 4th run in, and Peyton Wethe singing to bring in the 5th run of the day.

The Cardinals would come storming back in the bottom of the third with a Makie Paxson two-run homer which cut the score down to 5-2 and then things really opened up as Florczak would ground out bringing 2 runs on an error and Maria Clark would be walked with the bases loaded which would bring in the tying run. In the top of the 5th Fairmont would regain the lead as Peyton Wethe would reach on an Error bringing in a run, Alexa Andrew would double bringing in a nother run, and Kamilla Slay would flyout to bring in the 8th run of the game. The game would end 8-5.

The Cardinals will take on NDC on April 26th, so make sure you come out and support the softball team by going to the game or tuning into the live stream.