Rosemont, Ill. – The Missouri S&T Lady Miner softball nine dropped its opener in the Lewis Flyer Dome Invitational to the fourth ranked Grand Valley State Lakers 8-0 in six innings on Friday afternoon at the Dome at the Ballpark in Rosemont, Ill. S&T (4-6) was held to two hits in the contest.

The Lady Miners had an opportunity to strike first with two of their first three hitters reaching base via a walk but back-to-back strikeouts ended the threat. The Lakers (1-0) had a couple of chances early as well but Avery English (Carterville, Ill./Carterville) was able to keep them off the scoreboard through three innings.

In the fourth inning, Grand Valley broke the tie on Kayla Plastiak's two-run homer to right center with two outs in the inning. After another single, English was able to get out of the inning with a popout.

The Lakers broke the game open in the home half of the fifth sending 10 batters to the plate and scoring four runs on five hits. Ashley Hill (Centralia, Mo./Centralia) came on in relief of English with one out in the fifth and got out of a bases loaded jam to extend the game to the sixth.

In the sixth inning, Grand Valley loaded the bases with an error and back-to-back singles. Ellie Balbach ended the game with a two run single to right scoring Teagan Shomin and Kelsey Dominguez.

English and Abby Klein (Kansas City, MO/Staley) accounted for both of S&T's hits in the contest. English got the start in the circle allowing six runs on 11 hits with four strikeouts and two walks. Hill went the final 0.2 and faced four batters in the sixth giving up two runs, one earned, on three hits.