SMYRNA, Tenn. – For the second day in a row, Missouri S&T's softball team staged a seventh inning rally to get a victory as the Miners scored twice in the top of the seventh to knock off Tiffin 10-0 in their second game of the day at the Music City Invitational. S&T dropped its opener on Saturday 5-4 to Cedarville and will take a 2-2 record into its games Sunday against Ashland and Purdue Northwest.
Game 1 – Cedarville 5, Miners 4
In a game that went back-and-forth in the later innings, the Miners got the initial run of the contest in their half of the fourth when with two outs,
Alyssa Haile (St. Peters, MO/Francis Howell Central) reached on an error to move
Shannon Flowers (Katy, Texas/Katy) – who had reached on the second of two fielder's choices in the inning – to third. Flowers would then score the first run of the game on a wild pitch.
Cedarville took the lead with two runs in the fifth, but the Miners answered back with two of their own to regain the lead. Back-to-back singles by
Baylee Jobson (Marceline, Mo./Marceline RV) and
Julia Kanoy (Hamilton, Mo./Penney) put runners at first and third with nobody out, then a squeeze bunt by
Gretchen Roth (Parkville, Mo./Park Hill South) scored Jobson to tie the score. After hits by
Elizabeth Viox (Glen Carbon, Ill./Edwardsville) and
Madison Passolano (Mokena, Ill./Lockport Township) loaded the bases,
Hannah Antzoulatos (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet Catholic Academy) delivered a sacrifice fly that gave the Miners a 3-2 lead.
That lead would again be short-lived as the Yellow Jackets retook the lead in the sixth and added an insurance run in the seventh, which they needed as the Miners cut the lead to one in the bottom half of the seventh when
Christina Eliopulos' (Tinley Park, Ill./Victor J. Andrew) infield single scored Roth. The Miners had the tying and winning runs in scoring position before Cedarville got out of the inning.
The Yellow Jackets outhit the Miners 10-9 in the game as Viox had three of the nine S&T hits.
Bryn Wooldridge (Salisbury, Mo./Salisbury), who entered the game in the sixth, took the loss in the circle.
Game 2 – Miners 10, Tiffin 9
S&T spotted the Dragons a 6-0 lead after two innings, but battled back and eventually won the game with a two-run seventh to even its record on the season at 2-2.
After Tiffin took the early six-run lead, the Miners scored four times in the top of the third to get back in the contest. The inning started when
Mayce Barber (Excelsior Springs, Mo./Excelsior Springs) reached on an error, then Viox followed with one-out singles to load the bases. That was followed a by a bases-clearing triple off the bat of Antzoulatos to cut the lead in half, then Flowers brought home the fourth run with a sacrifice fly.
Tiffin added two more runs in the third, but the Miners got one run back in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Antzoulatos and answered a Tiffin run in the fifth with three in the sixth to get to within a run. A single by
Alyssa Haile (St. Peters, MO/Francis Howell Central) and a walk to Jobson started the inning, then with two outs,
Chloe Saltijeral (North Aurora, Ill./Rosary) singled to load the bases and Viox reached on a throwing error by the third baseman that allowed two runs to score.
Rachel Smith (Monroe City, Mo./Monroe City R-1) followed with a hit to the opposite field to make it 9-8.
In the seventh, Haile and Jobson had back-to-back one-out singles, then Kanoy drew a walk to load the bases. Wooldridge tied the game with a hit up the middle, then Saltijeral delivered a sacrifice fly that brought home Jobson with the go-ahead run.
The Dragons got two runners on base in the seventh, but Wooldridge – who came in to pitch in the third – got two pop flies to squelch the comeback.
The Miners had 13 hits to Tiffin's 12 in the contest, as Smith went four-for-four at the plate and Haile, Jobson and Saltijeral all had two hits each. Wooldridge scattered four hits and struck out four to pick up the win.
Missouri S&T will face Ashland at 9 a.m. and Purdue Northwest at 1 p.m. to wrap up its weekend in Nashville.
