Joplin, Mo. – The Missouri S&T softball squad dropped a doubleheader to Northeastern State 4-0 and 11-4 on Friday afternoon at Lea Kungle Field in Joplin, Mo. The Lady Miners (0-6) had 16 hits in the contest but stranded a total of 13 runners on base.
Kelly Heckemeyer (St. Elizabeth, Mo./St. Elizabeth) finished the doubleheader with five hits in seven at-bats while
Cailey Baker (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield) drove in a pair of runs.
Game 1 Northeastern State 4 Lady Miners 0The RiverHawks (7-3) struck first in the bottom of the first taking advantage of a lead-off walk to Jessica Boone. With two outs Boone stole second and scored on a throwing error by
Kati Viets (Sweet Springs, Mo./Sweet Springs) which would have ended the inning.
NSU added two more in the home half of the second. With one out Jordan Woosley singled up the middle and then stole second. Ryan Martin then hit a ground ball to Baker at third, Baker looked Woosley back at second but her throw to first was offline allowing Woosley to advance to third and Baker to get to second. Kelsey Harmon then delivered a two-run single up the middle to make it 3-0.
S&T's best chance to get on the board came in the third as Heckemeyer and
Victoria Culbertson (Nevada, Mo./Nevada) reached on back-to-back singles to start the inning.
Monica Weiss (St. Louis, Mo./Marquette ) then reached on a fielder's choice to short as Harmon tried to get Culbertson at second and didn't have a play anywhere loading the bases with no one out.
Andi Davis (Blue Springs, Mo./Archbishop O'Hara ) struck out and
Hannah Franceschini (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield Central) grounded into a 1-2-3 double play to end the threat.
The Lady Miners had another threat in the sixth with Franceschini and
Kyra Slemp (Roeland Park, Kan./Shawnee Mission East) reaching to start the frame but a strikeout, a lineout and a fly out ended the inning with nothing across the dish.
The RiverHawks added to their lead in the bottom of the sixth. With two outs Harmon singled, stole second and scored on Boone's single to center field.
Heckemeyer led the offense with two hits in the contest while Franceschini, Baker, Culbertson and
Savannah Fedorchak (Oakville, Mo./Oakville) contributing one hit apiece. Viets took the loss allowing four runs, two earned, on eights with two strikeouts and two walks in six innings pitched.
Game 2 Northeastern State 11 Lady Miners 4The second game was scoreless through three innings then NSU broke the deadlock in the top of the fourth. Megan Ewton led off the inning with a bunt single, stole second, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a suicide squeeze play to make it 1-0.
S&T answered with three runs in the home half of the fourth. Franceschini and Slemp started the inning with back-to-back singles and then Fedorchak hit a single to left scoring Franceschini to tie the game. Heckemeyer singled to load the bases then Baker dropped a single into left center scoring Slemp and
Rachel Aiardo (Naperville, Ill./Naperville North), running for Fedorchak, to give the Lady Miners a 3-1 lead. They had a chance for more with runners at second and third and no out but were unable to add on.
The RiverHawks regained the lead in the top of the fifth courtesy of a hit-by-pitch, three walks, a wild pitch and a single scoring three runs to take a 4-3 lead. The Hawks added to their lead with four more in the sixth highlighted by Bailey Applegate's two-run double down the left field line.
Northeastern added three more in the top of the seventh to make it 11-3 and then S&T scored a run on an error in the bottom of the seventh to make it 11-4 as Weiss came around to score on a fielding error by Harmon.
Heckemeyer and Davis combined for half of the team's 10 hits in the backend of the twinbill. Franceschini, Slemp, Fedorchak, Baker and Weiss had one each.
Courtney Jackson (Parkville, Mo./Park Hill South) took the loss allowing four runs, all earned, on four hits. She struck out two but issued five free passes in 4.1 innings of work.
Ashley Hill (Centralia, Mo./Centralia) pitched 2.1 innings allowing seven runs on eight hits with a strikeout and two walks.
The Lady Miners are back in action on Saturday afternoon taking on Missouri Southern at 12 p.m. at Kungle Field in Joplin.
