ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's softball team bounced back from an opening game loss Saturday afternoon to take the nightcap and gain a split of its Great Lakes Valley Conference doubleheader with McKendree at the S&T Softball Field. The Miners won the nightcap 3-1 after losing the first contest 5-1 to the Bearcats.
Game 1: McKendree 5, Miners 1
The Bearcats (16-18, 8-10 GLVC) took advantage of some early mistakes by the Miners (20-18, 8-8 GLVC) in the opening inning to take a 2-0 lead, as a walk, a hit batter and an error led to the first run scoring and moving the runners into scoring position to allow the second run to cross the plate on Paige Hayden's sacrifice fly.
McKendree added to its lead in the third when Olivia Stansbury – who ranks third in NCAA Division II in home runs this season – belted her 16
th of the season with a runner on to double the Bearcat advantage. McKendree scored once more in the fourth when Heaven Lawrence tripled with two outs and scored on Stansbury's infield single.
The Miners only had two runners reach second base over the first five innings –
Ashley Davis (Erie, Ill./Erie) on a leadoff double in the second where she was stranded and
Ciarrah Bell (Marceline, Mo./Marceline) in the fourth when she singled and stole second. In the sixth,
Hannah Antzoulatos (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet Catholic Academy) led the inning off with a double, then bunted to third by Bell and scored on a
Shannon Flowers (Katy, Texas/Katy) sacrifice fly to get S&T on the board.
S&T was held to three hits in the opener by McKendree's Ellie Quaetham as the Bearcats outhit the Miners 6-3. Starting pitcher
Bryn Wooldridge (Salisbury, Mo./Salisbury) took the loss for the Miners in the circle, but reliever
Julia Kanoy (Hamilton, Mo./Penney) struck out five and did not allow a hit in her 3 1/3 innings of work.
Game 2: Miners 3, McKendree 1
McKendree took the lead in the opening inning of the nightcap as well on an RBI single by Hayden, but S&T answered right back as Antzoulatos hit Makenzie Carter's first pitch for a home run to tie the score. The Miners then capitalized on Carter's wildness as the inning progressed, as she issued two walks after giving up an infield single to
Madison Passolano (Mokena, Ill./Lockport Township) and a double to Davis. The first of the two walks loaded the bases, then another one on four pitches to
Emma Vaughn (Pevely, Mo./Herculaneum) forced in the go-ahead run.
The Miners added another run in the second when Bell drew a walk, moved along to third on two wild pitches and later scored on a ground out by Flowers.
That would be all that S&T starter
Charlye Rowland (Pearcy, Ark./Lake Hamilton) would need, as she shut down the Bearcats on just one hit over the final five innings. She escaped a bases loaded, one out jam in the second by getting Stansbury and Skyler Davis to pop out, beginning a run of setting down nine straight hitters until Stansbury singled with one out in the fifth.
After that hit, Rowland retired the final eight in order and leaving Stansbury, who represented the tying run, in the on-deck circle when the game ended on a foul out by Lawrence.
The Bearcats outhit S&T 6-5 in the second game – five of McKendree's hits came in the first two innings – with five different Miners getting hits in the nightcap. Rowland struck out four to improve to 9-8 on the season.
Missouri S&T will wrap up its weekend at home Sunday by hosting Missouri-St. Louis in a noon doubleheader at the S&T Softball Field.
