Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

(Joplin, Mo.) – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners softball team dropped a pair of games in the Teri Mathis Zenner Memorial Classic to Northeastern State 13-6 and to Emporia State 10-1 in six innings on Saturday afternoon in Joplin, Mo.

In the opener on Saturday the Lady Miners (1-6) got off to a good start scoring pair of runs in the opening inning. Jamie Hatlan (Fenton, Mo./Rockwood Summit ) led off the game with a single then scored on an error by the left fielder on Kristen Drage (Morganfield, Ky./Union County )'s single. Drage took advantage of the error as well and moved to second. Kaylea Smith (Blue Springs, Mo./Blue Springs) singled home Drage with two outs to make it 2-0.

Northeastern State (6-7) cut the lead in half in the bottom of the second scoring its run on a bases loaded walk with two outs.

S&T got that run back in the third as Adrienne Kruse (Edwardsville, Ill./Edwardsville) drew a bases loaded walk to score Drage. Abby Lunn (Hazelwood, Mo./Hazelwood West ) had a chance to make it an even bigger inning but she lined out to first to end the frame.

The Riverhawks took the lead in the bottom of the inning scoring five runs on five hits. Lisa Ripperger had the big hit with a two-run single left that made it 6-3.

The Lady Miners closed the gap to 6-4 with an unearned run in the fourth as Kassi Deibert (Highland, Ill./Highland) drove in Hatlan with a sacrifice fly to center.

NSU broke the game open in the bottom of the frame tallying six runs on only three hits and also took advantage of an S&T error.

The Lady Miners added single tallies in the fifth and sixth but got no closer than six runs the rest of the game.

The Riverhawks added another run in the sixth for the final margin.

S&T finished the game with eight hits and was led by Drage and Smith with two apiece. Taylor Keal (Blue Springs, Mo./Blue Springs South) suffered the loss for the Lady Miners.

In the nightcap Emporia State (6-5) scored a pair of runs in the second on a RBI triple by Katie Huffman and a RBI single by Jennifer Heerey.

The Lady Miners cut the lead in half with a run in the home half of the second. Smith reached on an error. Stefani Moore (Springfield, Mo./Kickapoo ) came in to pinch run for her and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. Kate Runyan (Crown Point, Ind./Boone Grove) drove Moore in with a double to double to left.

The Hornets scored twice in the third, once in the fourth and then broke the game open with a five run fifth.

Runyan and Lunn had S&T's only two hits in the contest. Kristen Drage (Morganfield, Ky./Union County ) took the loss.

The Lady Miners are back in action in Joplin on Sunday taking on Northwest Missouri at 9 a.m. and Pittsburg State at 5 p.m.