KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Missouri S&T got out to leads in the opening inning in both games of its softball doubleheader at Rockhurst Saturday afternoon, but was unable to sustain the advantage in either contest as the Hawks swept the twinbill from the Miners by scores of 4-1 and 7-1 in the games played at Avila University.
The losses dropped the Miners to 10-14 on the season and 2-4 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference as they will continue their weekend trip to the Kansas City area with a doubleheader Sunday at William Jewell. Game time is set for noon for the first game in Liberty, Mo.
Game 1 – Rockhurst 4, Missouri S&T 1
The Miners got a run right out of the gate when
Emma Vaughn (Pevely, Mo./Herculaneum) led off the contest with a home run. Unfortunately for the Miners, that would turn out to be the lone highlight as S&T managed only one more hit in the game against Rockhurst starter BreAnna Drage, which was a two-out double by
Rachel Smith (Monroe City, Mo./Monroe City R-1) in the third.
S&T got two runners on base in the second, but a double play squelched that scoring chance and the Hawks took the lead in the bottom half of the frame on an Avery Huffman two-run double. Rockhurst added to its lead in the fourth when an error allowed a run to score and tacked on another in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Clare Reinhart.
Julia Kanoy (Hamilton, Mo./Penney) took the loss in the circle for S&T, allowing three earned runs and five hits in her four innings of work. She also struck out six in the contest, while reliever
Charlye Rowland (Pearcy, Ark./Lake Hamilton) fanned three in two innings.
Game 2 – Rockhurst 7, Miners 1
For the second straight game, S&T scored in the opening inning when Vaughn led off with a hit and after being sacrificed to second, came in to score on a hit by
Bryn Wooldridge (Salisbury, Mo./Salisbury).
However, the Hawks used the long ball to get the lead in the bottom of the inning when Gwen Bostick hit a two-run homer, then got another homer two innings later from Huffman to take a 4-1 lead. Huffman would drive in another run in the fifth as part of a three-run inning that included a two-run double by Riley McGovern.
S&T had a number of scoring opportunities early in the contest, but stranded two runners on base in each of the first three innings and left nine on base in the contest.
Rockhurst outhit the Miners 10-8 on the afternoon; Wooldridge, who started the game in the circle and took the loss, had two of S&T's eight hits.
