CLERMONT, Fla. - The Elmhurst softball team upped its record to 4-2 on the season by sweeping games from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and Colby College at the NTC Spring Tournament. Elmhurst blanked UW-Whitewater 2-0 to start the day and then rallied past Colby 6-5 in nine innings.

ELMHURST 2, WHITEWATER 0 - The Bluejays recorded their first shutout of the season by blanking Wisconsin-Whitewater 2-0 behind a combined pitching performance from Stefanie Sanidas and Stephanie Sturino. 

Elmhurst started the scoring in the fourth inning. Mikayla Melone doubled and scored on Faith Thompson's pinch-hit RBI single with two outs in the inning. The Bluejays tacked on an insurance run in the fifth when Crystal Marinelli singled home Morgan Evans. 

Whitewater threatened in the fifth by putting two runners on with only one out, but Sturino entered the contest and retired the next two batters to end the threat.

Sanidas earned the win for the Bluejays, working 4.1 innings and scattering just three hits and one walk while fanning one. She improved to 2-1 on the season with the win. Sturino notched her second save of the season by pitching 2.2 scoreless innings of relief while surrendering just two hits.

ELMHURST 6, COLBY 5 - Elmhurst scored four runs in the top of the seventh to send the game to extra innings and then completed the rally with the game-winning run in the top of the ninth.

Trailing 5-1 entering the seventh, Marinelli led off the inning with a single. Brianna Thompson cut Colby's lead in half by blasting a two-run homer. A single from Mikayla Melone and a run-scoring double from Bekah Ondracek brought the Bluejays to within a run at 5-4. Faith Thompson followed and drove in Ondracek to even the score at 5-5. 

After both teams failed to score in the eighth, the Bluejays pushed home the winning-run in the ninth. Using tiebreaker rules that start the inning with a runner at second, Melone singled home a run to give Elmhurst a 6-5 lead. In the bottom of the ninth, Brianna Thompson cut down a runner trying to steal the third and back-to-back strikeouts ended the contest for the Bluejays.

Melone led the Bluejays at the plate by finishing 3-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI. Brianna Thompson added two hits and drove in two while Bri Getzloff also tallied two hits for the Bluejays.

Stephanie Sturino picked up the win in reliaf,  working four innings and allowing just one unearned run. She scattered three hits while striking out three. 

Elmhurst takes on Buena Vista University and Grinnell University tomorrow.