SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Missouri S&T's softball team opened play Friday at the Drury Classic with a pair of losses to highly regarded teams, as S&T fell to 13
th-ranked Central Oklahoma and to Minnesota Duluth on the first day of action.
The Miners (7-15) lost 12-2 to UCO before dropping a 3-1 decision in nine innings to Minnesota Duluth, a game that it tied in the bottom of the seventh.
Missouri S&T will wrap up its weekend of action on Saturday when it faces Minnesota Duluth and Nebraska-Kearney in the event at Thompson Field.
Central Oklahoma 12, Miners 2
The Miners played scoreless ball against the Bronchos (10-6) for the first four innings before UCO exploded for six runs in the fifth and added six more over the next two innings to pull away.
S&T starter
Natalie Cuadras (Huntington Beach, CA/Edison) held UCO to two hits over the first four innings and kept it off the scoreboard until there were two outs in the fifth, at which point the Bronchos had seven straight batters reach base to score the six runs. UCO took the lead on an infield single by Terin Ritz, which was followed by three consecutive hits that brought home the other five runs.
The Miners got on the scoreboard in the field on a hit by
Bryn Wooldridge (Salisbury, Mo./Salisbury) and a subsequent error that allowed
Isabella Welton (O'Fallon, MO/Fort Zumwalt West) to score, while the other S&T crossed the plate in the seventh when
Trista Grobe (DeSoto, MO/DeSoto) doubled in Welton.
UCO outhit the Miners 14-7 in the game, with Grobe, Wooldridge and Welton all getting two hits apiece.
Minnesota Duluth 3, Miners 1 (9 innings)
After three scoreless innings, Minnesota Duluth (8-2) jumped out on top on a passed ball that scored Julia Gronholz in the fourth. S&T had a good scoring chance in the fifth but stranded runners at second and third, but was able to take advantage of two Bulldog errors in the seventh to plate the tying run.
With one out,
Sydney Anderson (Elkhart, IA/North Polk) reached base on an error, then with two outs, an error on a ball hit by
Mackenzie Shields (Kansas City, MO/Platte County) put runners at second and third.
Chloe Saltijeral (North Aurora, Ill./Rosary) followed with a hit to left to bring in the tying run.
With the international tiebreaker rule in effect, S&T had a chance to win the game in the bottom of the eighth after keeping UMD off the scoreboard but couldn't get a run across, then the Bulldogs scored twice in the ninth to take the lead. S&T had the tying runs on base in the ninth but wound up stranding both runners.
The Miners were held to three hits in the game – coming from Welton, Anderson and Saltijeral – while Wooldridge allowed just four hits over nine innings and struck out eight.
