ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's softball team's seven-game winning streak came to a halt Friday afternoon as Cottey College took both ends of a non-conference doubleheader from the Miners. The visiting Comets won the games by scores of 7-2 and 6-4, dropping S&T to 16-12 on the season.
Game 1: Cottey 7, Miners 2
In cool and very windy conditions at the S&T Softball Field, the start of the day looked as if was going to be one with a lot of offense. Cottey's Lauren Johnson opened the scoring by hitting a two-run homer to the opposite field off S&T starter
Bryn Wooldridge (Salisbury, Mo./Salisbury), then
Hannah Antzoulatos (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet Catholic Academy) led off the bottom of the first with a home run to cut the lead in half.
However, the Comets (15-9) scored twice in the second as well on an RBI single by Maya De Sota and a throwing error on the play allowed the second run to score. Cottey then added to the lead in the fifth on a two-run single by Johnson before Antzoulatos homered for the second time in the game, a solo shot to center to left center with two out in the fifth.
The Comets, who outhit S&T 8-7 in the opener, scored again in the sixth and were able to keep S&T off the scoreboard in the final two innings despite the Miners getting their leadoff hitter on in both frames.
Antzoulatos, with her two homers, was the only Miner with two hits in the game.
Game 2: Cottey 6, Miners 4
The teams traded runs in the early innings of the nightcap, as Cottey scored first in the second inning when Kristen Hurst drew a bases-loaded walk from S&T starter
Julia Kanoy (Hamilton, Mo./Penney), only to see S&T tie the game in the third when
Gretchen Roth (Parkville, Mo./Park Hill South) doubled off the fence with two outs and scoring on a hit by Antzoulatos.
Cottey took the lead in the fifth when Elizabeth Thomas – who had made a catch at the fence in foul territory to end the Miners' half of the fourth – hit a two-run homer off
Charlye Rowland (Pearcy, Ark./Lake Hamilton). Later in the inning, the Comets added to their lead on a squeeze bunt by Karina Ramirez that allowed Alyssa Montoya to score.
The Comets got back-to-back home runs in the sixth from Aryana Palencia and Caitlyn Morgan, runs that proved to be the difference as S&T's
Taylor Caton (Ballwin, Mo./Parkway West) belted a three-run homer with two outs in the seventh.
Cottey pitcher Brooke Vicory set down S&T's first eight hitters in order before the two hits that scored the run in the third, then retired 10 straight before the Miners' uprising in the seventh that began with a leadoff double by
Ashley Davis (Erie, Ill./Erie).
The Miners were held to four hits in the second game; Rowland took the loss in the circle in relief.
S&T will return to its Great Lakes Valley Conference schedule Sunday when it faces Drury in a noon doubleheader in Springfield, Mo.
