QUINCY, Ill. – Missouri S&T's softball team opened its Great Lakes Valley Conference schedule Sunday with a pair of setbacks to Quincy, as the Hawks edged the Miners 3-2 in game one and completed the sweep with a 6-2 win in the second contest.
S&T had late scoring opportunities in both games with the tying or go-ahead batter at the plate, but couldn't come up with the hit in those spots and dropped to 8-12 overall and 0-2 in the GLVC heading into its conference home openers on Monday.
Game 1 – Quincy 3, Miners 2
Quincy (10-10, 2-0 GLVC) scored two unearned runs in the opening inning thanks to a pair of S&T errors in the frame. The first run came home on an RBI double by Taylor Downen and she would score later in the inning on a dropped fly ball with two outs.
The Miners cut the lead in half in the third when
Shannon Flowers (Katy, Texas/Katy) blasted a home run over the fence in center, then
Julia Kanoy (Hamilton, Mo./Penney) – who entered the game to pitch in relief in the third after the first two runners had reached base – struck out three straight hitters get S&T out of a jam to keep the score at 2-1.
The Hawks did add to their advantage in the fourth, however, when Downen drove in her second run of the game on a hit that scored Allison Kaiser.
S&T drew a run closer in the sixth as it loaded the bases with one out on consecutive hits by Kanoy,
Alyssa Haile (St. Peters, MO/Francis Howell Central) and
Hannah Antzoulatos (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet Catholic Academy), which was followed by a run-scoring single by
Baylee Jobson (Marceline, Mo./Marceline RV). Quincy went to its bullpen after the hit by Jobson and Brooklynn Fischer got the Hawks out of the inning by retiring
Emma Vaughn (Pevely, Mo./Herculaneum) and Flowers on fly balls.
In the seventh, the Miners got their leadoff hitter on base when
Taylor Caton (Ballwin, Mo./Parkway West) struck out – but the throw to first was wild and then she was able to reach second when the right fielder mishandled the ball in the outfield. However, Fischer fanned the next three hitters to preserve the win.
Quincy outhit S&T 7-6 in the opener; no Miner had more than one hit. Starting pitcher
Bryn Wooldridge (Salisbury, Mo./Salisbury) was tagged with the loss in the circle.
Game 2 – Quincy 6, Miners 2
The nightcap again saw Quincy get on the board first, this time in the second inning on an RBI single off the bat of Kaiser. The Hawks loaded the bases ahead of the Kaiser hit on two hits and a walk, but S&T pitcher
Mayce Barber (Excelsior Springs, Mo./Excelsior Springs) escaped additional damage by getting a strikeout and a fly ball to end the inning.
Quincy went up 2-0 in the third when Courtney Mills blooped a two-out single into right that allowed Jayle Jennings to come around to score.
Fischer started game two for the Hawks and picked up where she left off in the opener, keeping S&T off the scoreboard for the first three innings before the Miners took advantage of some sloppy play by the Hawks on a cold afternoon to get their first run of the game in the fourth.
Antzoulatos reached on an infield single to open the inning, then moved around to third on a fly out and a passed ball, then scored after Haile reached on a squeeze bunt as the throw went over the head of the second baseman at first, allowing Antzoulatos to cross the plate. Haile ended up at second on a wild pitch, but was stranded there as the inning ended.
However, the Hawks answered right back as they put three runs on the scoreboard, the first scoring on a hit by Kaiser and then the next two on an error and a wild pitch.
S&T got a run back in the fifth when Vaughn led off with a double and later scored on an
Elizabeth Viox (Glen Carbon, Ill./Edwardsville) ground out, then got the tying run to the plate in the sixth when its first two runners reached base -- but was unable to score on that opportunity as the Miners were unable to get a ball out of the infield. Quincy tacked on another insurance run in the bottom half of the inning.
The Miners were held to just three hits in the nightcap – Jobson had the other hit to go along with the ones by Antzoulatos and Vaughn. Barber took the loss in the circle in the contest.
Missouri S&T will host Truman State Monday in a GLVC doubleheader at the S&T Softball Field beginning at 1 p.m.
