NASHVILLE, Tenn. – After opening the season with back-to-back wins on Friday, Missouri S&T's softball team gained a split of its two contests Saturday afternoon at the Music City Invitational as it rebounded from a loss to Findlay with a shutout victory over Kentucky Wesleyan to move to 3-1 on the young season.
Bryn Wooldridge (Salisbury, Mo./Salisbury) threw a three-hit shutout against the Panthers with seven strikeouts and also drove in two runs at the plate.
Game 1: Findlay 9, Miners 3
The Miners scored a run in the second and two in the third to take a 3-2 in its first game of the day, but the Oilers scored seven runs over the next three frames to hand S&T its first loss of the season.
After Findlay scored twice in the second to take the initial lead, the Miners got a run back in the bottom half of the inning when
Hannah Antzoulatos (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet Catholic Academy) singled to open the inning, stole second and later scored on a double by
Ashley Davis (Erie, Ill./Erie). S&T then grabbed the lead in the third when
Shannon Flowers (Katy, Texas/Katy) belted a two-run homer that scored
Elizabeth Viox (Glen Carbon, Ill./Edwardsville) in front of her.
The Oilers tied the score in the fourth and took the lead in the fifth on Olivia Carlton's two-run double with two outs in the inning. Findlay tacked on four more runs in the sixth to break the game open.
The Miners were outhit 13-8 in the contest, with Viox, Antzoulatos and
Madison Passolano (Mokena, Ill./Lockport Township) getting two hits apiece for S&T. Starting pitcher Charyle Rowland took the loss in the circle for S&T.
Game 2: Miners 6, Kentucky Wesleyan 0
In the second game, the Miners got a shutout performance from Wooldridge as she blanked the Panthers on just three hits and fanned seven in her compete game performance. The three hits were all singles that came in the first, fifth and seventh innings and the hit in the fifth was erased by a double play.
S&T got Wooldridge all the runs she would need in the third with a four-run outburst.
Baylee Jobson (Marceline, Mo./Marceline RV) led off the inning with a double, then
Ciarrah Bell (Marceline, Mo./Marceline) and Viox both reached on errors as Jobson scored the first run on the second miscue. Passolano followed with a two-run single to score those two, then Wooldridge brought home Passolano with a sacrifice fly before the inning ended.
The Miners tacked on a single run in the fourth when Jobson hit another leadoff double and scored on a double by Passolano, and again in the seventh when Wooldridge delivered another sacrifice fly that scored Antzoulatos.
Passolano had the two hits and three runs batted in for the Miners and Jobson also finished with a pair of hits as S&T had a 9-3 advantage in hits in its second game of the day.
The Miners will close out their weekend in Nashville Sunday as they take on Tiffin at 9 a.m. and Ferris State at 11 a.m.
