ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's softball team rebounded from a game one loss Sunday afternoon to gain a split with McKendree in their Great Lakes Valley Conference doubleheader at the S&T Softball Field.
The Miners got a career-high 13 strikeouts from
Charlye Rowland (Pearcy, Ark./Lake Hamilton) and a three-run homer off the bat of
Sydney Anderson (Elkhart, IA/North Polk) to win the second game 3-1, after McKendree took an 8-3 decision in game one.
The split leaves the Miners at 19-21 overall and 10-6 in the GLVC heading into a road trip next weekend against the top two teams in the GLVC, beginning with Saturday's noon doubleheader (Eastern time) at Indianapolis.
Game 1: McKendree 8, Miners 3
The Miners jumped on top in the opener in the second when
Ty Neal (Enid, OK/Kremlin-Hilldale) led off with an infield single and came all the way around to score on a double by Anderson, who also took third when the throw went to the plate. However, S&T left Anderson stranded and the Bearcats grabbed the lead when they came to bat in the third.
After two walks in the inning, Lauren Harris – the leading hitting in the GLVC coming into play on Saturday – hit a 3-0 pitch that went off the top of the fence in left and over to give McKendree a 3-1 lead.
The Bearcats (24-17, 7-7 GLVC) added to their lead in the fourth when two runs scored on a wild pitch, then tacked on three more an inning later on run-scoring hits by Jenna Getz and Taylor Witges.
S&T plated two runs in the seventh, the first on back-to-back doubles by
Keira Jones (Richmond Hill, GA/Richmond Hill) and
Mackenzie Shields (Kansas City, MO/Platte County) and the other when
Natalie Cuadras (Huntington Beach, CA/Edison) single to the opposite field to bring in Shields.
The Miners outhit McKendree 6-5 in the game, but the Bearcats were beneficiaries of eight walks and a hit batter in the contest.
Bryn Wooldridge (Salisbury, Mo./Salisbury) took the loss in the circle for the Miners.
Game 2: Miners 3, McKendree 1
The Bearcats got the early advantage in game two, moving in front on a dropped fly ball off the bat of Harris that allowed Heaven Lawrence to score with two outs in the inning. The Miners, however, had an answer after their first two hitters were retired in the bottom half of the inning.
Wooldridge singled to the opposite field and Neal singled between third and short to bring up Anderson, who proceeded to belt a Paige McAllister pitch down the line for a three-run homer to put S&T in the lead.
Rowland faced a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the fifth with Harris and Olivia Stansbury due up, but fanned both hitters to escape that jam and pitched out of a two-on, no-out situation in the sixth with three straight strikeouts. Rowland then pitched around a two-out single by Harris in the seventh by getting Stansbury on a fly ball to center to nd the game.
Each team had eight hits in the game – Neal and Cuadras has two apiece for the Miners – while Rowland fanned 13 in the contest; 10 of the last 12 outs she recorded were via the strikeout.
