Rolla, Mo. – The Missouri S&T softball team's upset bid came up short against eighth ranked Missouri-St. Louis dropping the opener 1-0 in 12 innings and the nightcap 8-4 on Sunday afternoon. S&T finished the doubleheader with 12 hits and was led by
Hannah Franceschini (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield Central) with three while
Andi Davis (Blue Springs, Mo./Archbishop O'Hara ) and
Monica Weiss (St. Louis, Mo./Marquette ) had two hits each.
Game 1 – Missouri-St. Louis 1 Lady Miners 0 12 innings
The opener between the Lady Miners (13-30, 3-19 GLVC) and Tritons (41-4, 19-3 GLVC) was a pitcher's duel between
Kati Viets (Sweet Springs, Mo./Sweet Springs) and Hannah Perryman as the two traded zeroes for the first 11 innings.
Viets got out of a tough jam in the second loading the bases with one out but got back-to-back strikeouts to get out of the jam. After escaping that jam Viets allowed only four base runners over the next seven innings.
S&T's best chance to score came in the fifth as Franceschini and Davis recorded back-to-back two out hits in the fifth but couldn't score as Franceschini tried to advance to third on a ball in the dirt but was thrown out to end the inning.
UMSL finally broke through with a run in the 12
th. Ryan Logan led off the inning with a single and was run for by Kelly McGovern. A sacrifice moved McGovern to second then a walk to Alicia Shivers put two on with one out. A wild pitch moved both runners up a base then Serena Olson lifted a fly ball to left which was deep enough to score McGovern.
The Lady Miners had the tying run on base in the bottom of the 12
th but Franceschini was robbed of a hit on a great running catch by Erin Walker to end the game.
S&T outhit the Tritons 5-3 in the opener with Davis leading the way with two. Viets was the tough luck loser allowing the one run on three hits with four strikeouts against six walks in the complete game effort.
Perryman also threw a complete game allowing just the five hits while striking out 23 against one walk on 194 pitches.
Game 2 – Missouri-St. Louis 8 Lady Miners 4
In the nightcap, UMSL scored twice in the second and added two more in the third to take an early 4-0 lead. Franceschini cut the lead in half in the bottom of the third hitting a two-run double to left center scoring Weiss and
Kyra Slemp (Roeland Park, Kan./Shawnee Mission East).
The Tritons got those two runs back in the fourth on a two-run single from Alex Stupek that found a hole through the left side of the infield plating Carly Kingery and Reagan Osborn. UMSL added another run in the fifth on a hit and an error scoring Logan from second.
S&T refused to go away though loading the bases with one out in the fifth and Franceschini again delivered with a single through the left side scoring
Carley Hamann (Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln Way North) and
Rachel Aiardo (Naperville, Ill./Naperville North) to make it 7-4 and bring the tying run to the plate. That would be it though for the Lady Miners as Perryman came back to get a strikeout and a pop out to end the inning.
The Tritons added another run in the seventh on four hits as Kingery doubled down the left field line scoring Sara Kern.
S&T was outhit 11-7 in the second game and was led by Franceschini with a pair of hits and four runs batted in.
Ashley Hill (Centralia, Mo./Centralia) got the start allowing six runs, four earned, on six hits with a strikeout and two walks in four innings.
Courtney Jackson (Parkville, Mo./Park Hill South) went the final three innings allowing two runs on five hits with three strikeouts.
The Lady Miners return to action next Saturday traveling to Springfield, Ill., to take on the Illinois Springfield Prairie Stars in a doubleheader beginning at 12 p.m.
