HANOVER, Ind. The Hanover Panthers opened Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference action on Saturday afternoon with Defiance as they split the doubleheader at Kops-Bedel Stadium. Hanover took game one in six innings 9-1 while the Yellow Jackets claimed the night cap 10-3.
 
Senior Lily (Compton) Beurman (Evansville, Ind.) picked up the win in game one, charting seven strikeouts and bringing her career total to 450 strikeouts.
 
GAME ONE
Hanover surged ahead early as junior Kendra Hutchison (Lafayette, Ind.) singled to left center scoring junior Kensie Bradley (Greenfield, Ind.) in the bottom of the first inning, 1-0.
 
They would tack on three more runs in the second inning as junior Lexi Garloch (Salem, Ind.) and Hutchison both picked up an RBI, 4-0.
 
However, Defiance got one run back in the next half inning before a Panther scoring frenzy.
 
Leading the charge in the fourth inning was freshman Lauren Beaman (Indianapolis, Ind.) with a two RBI double that pushed HC on top 6-1. Compton added the final too runs of the inning to extend the difference to 8-1.
 
The game winning run came off the bat of Beaman as she secured the HCAC victory.
 
GAME TWO
The Yellow Jackets dominated much of game two as they jumped out to the early lead before a Garloch single knotted the contest 1-1.
 
Hanover added two runs in the bottom of the second inning as Bradley hit an RBI double that pushed HC on top 3-1.
 
But the rest would consist of the Defiance offense as they added six runs in the fourth inning, one in the fifth inning and two in the sixth inning to secure the win.
 
Hanover returns to action on Wednesday, April 6 when they travel to Franklin.