ROLLA, Mo. – Despite losing both ends of Sunday's doubleheader with Truman State, Missouri S&T's softball team landed a spot in this week's Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament as it will take part in the event for the first time since 2018.
The Miners (23-31, 13-13 GLVC) made the tournament as the seventh seed and will face second-seeded Lewis in the opening round on Thursday at 3 p.m. in East Peoria, Ill. S&T will also play on Friday against either third-seeded Drury or sixth-seeded Truman State, depending on the results of Thursday's contests, in the double-elimination event that will conclude on Sunday, May 5.
On Sunday, the Miners were victimized by two unearned runs in the fifth inning that decided the first contest, then Truman scored four times in the fifth inning to break open game two to complete the sweep.
Game 1: Truman State 2, Miners 1
In a game that was delayed by rain for close to two hours before its start, the Miners got on the scoreboard first in the second inning.
Bryn Wooldridge (Salisbury, Mo./Salisbury) singled to open the inning and following a fielder's choice and a sacrifice bunt,
Natalie Cuadras (Huntington Beach, CA/Edison) singled into left and
Mackenzie Shields (Kansas City, MO/Platte County) singled off the top of the glove of the shortstop to bring home
Ty Neal (Enid, OK/Kremlin-Hilldale) with the first run of the game.
Wooldridge, who was the pitcher for the Miners in the opener, allowed a leadoff single to Cassie Smith before retiring the next 13 Bulldogs. The 13
th hitter retired was Cam Patterson, whom she struck out at the conclusion of a 12-pitch at-bat to begin the fifth, but that was followed by a hit, a walk and an error that loaded the bases.
After getting the second out of the inning, Smith lined a ball just over the glove of third baseman
Baylee Jobson (Marceline, Mo./Marceline RV) to score the tying and go-ahead runs.
S&T got runners on base in each of the last three innings but was unable to push the tying run across. The best chance came in the sixth after a two-out error kept the inning alive, but Neal hit a ball that was caught at the top of the fence in left to end the inning.
Truman outhit S&T 4-3 in the opener, with all three of the Miner hits coming in the second. Wooldridge fanned six in her complete game performance.
Game 2: Truman State 7, Miners 1
The Bulldogs (23-27, 13-13 GLVC) got the early advantage in the nightcap on Nina Fenasci's squeeze bunt that scored the first run of the game, then the Miners loaded the bases in the bottom half of the inning on a single by Shields, a double by
Charlye Rowland (Pearcy, Ark./Lake Hamilton) and a walk to Neal. However,
Chloe Saltijeral's (North Aurora, Ill./Rosary) liner up the middle was speared by pitcher Kaylyn Jones to end the threat.
Truman proceeded to break the game open in the fifth as its first four hitters reached base. Smith doubled in the first run of the inning, followed by a two-run double by Cali Coombs which extended the lead to 4-0. The Bulldogs got another run across on an infield out later in the inning and scored twice more in the sixth sandwiched around the one S&T run of the contest.
The Miners scored in the fifth when Jobson led off with an opposite field single and later scored on a hit into the gap by Cuadras.
Each team had nine hits in game two; Rowland had two of the hits while she was in the game as the pitcher.
