ST. LOUIS, Mo. – After suffering a heartbreaking extra inning loss in game one Sunday, Missouri S&T's softball team rebounded by leading from start to finish in the nightcap to gain a split of its Great Lakes Valley Conference doubleheader at Maryville University. The Saints took the opener 6-5 in nine innings before the Miners won 5-3 in the nightcap to move to 19-17 overall and 7-7 in GLVC play.
Game 1: Maryville 6, Miners 5 (9 inn.)
Maryville (13-12, 8-4 GLVC) jumped the Miners with a four-run first inning, capped by Kylie Swinney's two-run homer, to take the early lead in the opener. S&T began chipping away at the lead in the third when
Taylor Caton (Ballwin, Mo./Parkway West) led off the inning with a double, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on
Baylee Jobson's (Marceline, Mo./Marceline RV) opposite field single.
An inning later, Caton drove in the run as her ground ball brought home pinch-runner
Peyton Dillon (Yorkville, Ill./Rosary) to trim the lead to 4-2. The Miners proceeded to tie the contest in the fifth, aided by a pair of Maryville errors along the way. Jobson reached on the first of those errors to start the inning, then
Hannah Antzoulatos (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet Catholic Academy) doubled to send Jobson to third.
Elizabeth Viox (Glen Carbon, Ill./Edwardsville) reached on an error to score the first run of the frame.
S&T would load the bases and scored again on a
Bryn Wooldridge (Salisbury, Mo./Salisbury) sacrifice fly to even the contest at four.
In the seventh, the Miners took the lead when
Shannon Flowers (Katy, Texas/Katy) doubled to begin the inning and came around to score on a one-out double by Wooldridge. However, the Saints loaded the bases with one out in the bottom half of the inning and after Wooldridge struck out Taylor Duff for the second out, threw a wild pitch that allowed Tori Forbeck to score the tying run.
The Miners went down in order in the eighth and ninth innings, then the Saints won the game in the bottom of the ninth when Emersen Heron reached on a fielder's choice as Aleigha Cory was able to score on the play.
Maryville outhit the Miners 9-8 in the first game; Caton and Jobson had two hits apiece for S&T.
Julia Kanoy (Hamilton, Mo./Penney), who took over in the circle in the eighth inning, suffered the loss for S&T.
Game 2: Miners 5, Maryville 3
Missouri S&T jumped in front in the opening inning of the second game, as Antzoulatos led off with a double and Viox was hit by a pitch. After the runners were moved up with a sacrifice bunt, Wooldridge drove in Antzoulatos with an opposite field single. S&T scored again in the second when
Ciarrah Bell (Marceline, Mo./Marceline) reached on an infield hit and got second on a throwing error, then came home on Antzoulatos' second double of the contest.
Maryville cut the lead in half in the third, but S&T scored three times in the fifth to extend its advantage. The uprising begam with a one-out single by Flowers, followed by a walk to Wooldridge and Caton reaching on a fielder's choice to load the bases. Jobson followed by doubling down the line in left to score Flowers and Wooldridge, then
Chloe Saltijeral (North Aurora, Ill./Rosary) grounded to the right side to allow Caton to score.
The Saints cut the lead to 5-3 when Heron hit a two-run homer in the bottom half of the fifth, but S&T starter
Charlye Rowland (Pearcy, Ark./Lake Hamilton) got out of the fifth with no further damage, pitched around a one-out single by Swinney in the sixth and set the Saints down in order in the seventh to wrap up the win.
Rowland allowed five hits and struck out three to get the win. S&T outhit Maryville 8-5 in the nightcap as Antzoulatos and Wooldridge had two hits apiece and Jobson drove in two.
Missouri S&T will return to action at home on Saturday when it hosts McKendree in a GLVC doubleheader beginning at noon.
