PELLA—Patience at the plate produced 16 walks and a pair of softball wins Friday as No. 19-ranked Central College swept Greenville University (Ill.) 4-3 and 8-0 in six innings Friday in the home season opener.
           
Designated player Emma Lenox (sophomore, Fremont, Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont HS) lined a seventh-inning single off the left-field fence for a walk-off win the opener. Lenox drove in all four Central runs in the game. The Dutch (15-3) let a 3-0 sixth-inning lead slip away as Greenville (5-3) got a 3-run double to deep center field from Mia Boyd off reliever Morgan Schaben (senior, Portsmouth, Harlan HS). But starter Sydni Huisman (senior, Treynor) returned to throw a scoreless seventh inning. Then third baseman Franie Burnett (junior, Ankeny, Centennial HS) walked to start the seventh and eventually scored on Lenox's hit.
           
Huisman (8-1) was charged with one run over 6.2 innings with two hits, a walk and five strikeouts. Central mustered just four hits in the game and three in the second contest.
           
Freshman Emma Beck (Holland, Grundy Center HS), in her collegiate home debut, tossed five shutout innings in the nightcap. Beck (3-0) gave up just a hit while walking three and striking out seven. Schaben threw the sixth inning and allowed two hits but held Greenville scoreless.
           
Left fielder Megan Doty (senior, Grinnell) used one of Greenville's nine second-game walks to give Central the lead in the second inning, stealing second, advancing to third on a force out and scoring on a daring theft of home, her 11th steal of the season.
           
"Megan made a really good read," coach George Wares said.
           
Burnett lined a two-run double into the left-center field gap in the third inning and then Central added three more runs in the fifth on just one hit, a bunt single by shortstop Carson Fisk (senior, Searsboro, Lynnville-Sully HS). The Dutch ended it with two runs in the sixth, getting a walk-off single from Burnett, who had two hits in the game.
           
Central mustered only seven hits on the day.                                                           
           
"When you walk 16 times, I give our batters credit, especially in that first game that we didn't chase," coach George Wares said. "But the big thing we didn't get is we had multiple opportunities after two or three walks to break the game open and then just didn't get the key hit. Still, I know it sounds crazy when you get the minimal number of hits we did but I'm happy with our approaches at the plate."
           
Second baseman Haley Bach (sophomore, Council Bluffs, Lewis Central HS) was on base six times and tied her own school record with four walks in the second game. The record was originally set by Katie Tenboer in 2011 and then tied by Bach last year.
           
Wares said it was important for Central to re-establish its rhythm following a week off after a 12-game Arizona trip.
           
"Every year it seems like we come back from spring break and it's different," he said. "You know, you're kind of on a roll seeing a lot of live pitching and then this week, we were in and out because we couldn't get on the field very much, so that was a concern. I'm glad we got these two under our belt and hopefully can start getting a more normal routine of when we practice and how we practice."
           
Central is home again Tuesday with a 2 p.m. doubleheader against Grinnell College at the A.N. Kuyper Athletics Complex softball field. Grinnell is 9-5 after wrapping up a trip to Florida Friday.
           
"Grinnell is good," Wares said. "We played them a couple times last year and they had a really good trip to Florida. They got some nice wins."