ROLLA, Mo. – With no actual games taking place right now due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, we want to look back at some significant events that took place during the 2019-20 athletic season and break down various elements of those games.

Today, we'll take a look at the softball team's 6-4 win over Hillsdale at the Lewis Dome Invitational on Feb. 22 in Rosemont, Ill.

THE SET-UP: The Miners opened the 2020 season with an abbreviated weekend in Nashville, Tenn., where they dropped all three games they played in a weekend event hosted by Trevecca Nazarene.  S&T headed north the following weekend to play some games indoors at the Lewis Dome Invitational, where it would get five games in over a span of three days and hoped to get its season on track in the process.

The first two games in the Chicago suburbs went in S&T's favor, an 8-2 win over Ashland and a 3-2 win that followed over Purdue Northwest.  Game three for the Miners would be against a Hillsdale squad from the Great Midwest Athletic Conference that was in a similar situation as S&T as it had lost five straight games, including one-sided setbacks at the hands of Illinois Springfield and Wayne State (Mich.) on the first day of play.

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE GAME: After holding off a late rally to beat Purdue Northwest, the Miners returned to the field the next evening for the first of its two scheduled games.  Olivia Walter (Catawissa, MO/Cor Jesu Academy) retired the Chargers in order in the first, then S&T missed a chance to score in the bottom half of the inning when it got two runners on base with two outs but couldn't get one across the plate.

Hillsdale proceeded to grab the lead in the second after executing a double steal following a strikeout.  The Miners got runners on base in the second and third innings, but one was stranded and they lost the other one on a caught stealing to send the game to the fourth.

In the top half of the inning, the Chargers got a pair of runners on base with two outs before Walter got out of the frame by striking out Kasidy Carson.  And just like when the Chargers took advantage of the Miners' failure to score after getting two runners on in the first, S&T took the momentum getting out of a jam to get on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth.

Ashley Davis (Erie, IL/Erie) led off S&T's half of the fourth with an opposite field single, then following a sacrifice bunt and a ground out, Rachel Smith (Monroe City, Mo./Monroe City R-1) singled down the left field line to allow Davis to score the tying run.

However, the Chargers regained the advantage in the fifth with a three-run outburst.  The first two scored on three straight hits to start the inning before the third run scored on a sacrifice fly to give Hillsdale a 4-1 lead.  S&T answered right back in the bottom of the inning, starting a three-run rally of its own after the first batter of the inning was retired.

After the first out was recorded, Abby Klein (Kansas City, MO/Staley) singled and Marcy McCalla (Staunton, IL/Staunton) drew a walk, then Olivia Young (Millstadt, IL/Belleville Township) went to the opposite field with a hit that scored Klein; a subsequent error on the play allowed McCalla to come around to score as well.  Young ended up at second following the error, then a dropped pop fly off the bat of Davis gave Young the path to scoring to even the game at four apiece.

Walter – who left the game during Hillsdale's three-run fifth inning – returned to the circle to begin the sixth and pitched around an error (Carson, who reached on the error, was caught stealing) and a two-out hit by Sarah Wojcik to keep the game tied.  The Miners were able to then take advantage of another error by the Chargers to take the lead in the bottom of the sixth.

With one out, Hannah Antzoulatos (Planfield, Ill./Joliet Catholic Academy) reached on the aforementioned error and Klein bunted her way on; Antzoulatos ended up at third on the play.  Klein proceeded to steal second, then McCalla followed with a ground rule double into the gap in left center to give S&T its first lead of the contest.

S&T couldn't add any more runs in the inning as it left the bases loaded, but Walter retired the first two hitters in the seventh and struck out Jenna Cantalupo after allowing a two-out hit to finish the contest.

BETWEEN THE NUMBERS: Klein recorded three hits for S&T, the first three-hit game of the season by a Miner and 12^th game of her career with at least three hits.  She also extended her hitting streak to six games to start the season – it would eventually reach eight before she went hitless in a Feb. 28 game against Northern State. … The next day, Klein moved into a tie for 10^th place on S&T's career list for hits when she recorded her 171^st in an S&T uniform. … McCalla was one of six Miners that drove in at least two runs in a game during the season with her sixth inning double that put S&T into the lead. … Walter, who recorded her second win of the weekend in this contest, matched her season high with six innings pitched.  She also had nine of her 14 strikeouts on the season in her two wins. … S&T finished the game with 10 hits, a total exceeded only by the 14 it had in an eight-inning loss to Northern State the following weekend.
 
THE POST-SCRIPT: The win was the third straight for the Miners, but unfortunately, the remainder of the season did not go as the team hoped it would.  That victory turned out to be the last one of the 2020 season, as S&T dropped its final 10 games before the campaign came to a halt just before Great Lakes Valley Conference play was set to begin.  Five of those losses came by one or two runs and two of the setbacks were in extra innings.