Rolla, Mo. – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners made it two in a row on Saturday afternoon thanks to a four run second inning to defeat Colorado School of Mines 5-3 at the Midwestern State Round Robin in Wichita Falls, Texas. The Lady Miners (2-2) were outhit in the contest 7-6 but came up with some timely ones to hang on for the win.
S&T fell behind in the top of the second as the Orediggers (0-3) scored with one out in the inning. Katie Leiker singled through the right side of the infield and Kara Jones followed with a double to right center scoring Leiker from first.
Avery English (Carterville, Ill./Carterville) avoided any further damage retiring the next two batters to end the inning.
The Lady Miners responded in the home half of the second.
Savannah Fedorchak (Oakville, Mo./Oakville) led off the inning with a walk and then with one out
Hannah Franceschini (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield Central) hit a two-run homer to left to put S&T in front. Later in the inning,
Kelly Heckemeyer (St. Elizabeth, Mo./St. Elizabeth) singled to right and
Gretchen Egly (Joliet, Ill./Plainfield Central) walked. After a pop out,
Monica Weiss (St. Louis, Mo./Marquette ) came through with a two-run double to right center to make it 4-1.
CSM got a run back in the top of the third as Paige Noehring reached on an error and would score on Sonoma Toot's RBI single back up the middle. The Orediggers scored again in the fifth to cut the Lady Miner lead to 4-3 as Clara Lawson doubled with one out, moved to third on a groundout and scored on a single to right off the bat of Leiker.
S&T tacked on a big insurance run in the bottom of the sixth.
Jacey Allen (Roanoke, Texas/Byron Nelson) led off the inning with a single and went all the way to third after an error by the right fielder. With one out
Carley Hamann (Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln Way North) drove Allen in with a sacrifice fly to cap the scoring.
English then went out in the seventh setting CSM down in order to earn the complete game victory and her first collegiate win in the circle. She allowed three runs, two earned, on seven hits with five strikeouts and no walks.
Kelly Heckemeyer (St. Elizabeth, Mo./St. Elizabeth) led the offense with two hits while Weiss, Franceschini, Allen and Fedorchak had a hit each.
The Lady Miners will play two more on Sunday down in Wichita Falls. They'll take on Southwestern Oklahoma State at 9:30 a.m. and then conclude play with a game against the host Midwestern State Mustangs at 12 p.m.
