EAST PEORIA, Ill. – Some late heroics by Missouri S&T's softball team Thursday allowed the Miners to advance in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament, as S&T scored all six of its runs in the final three innings to down second-seeded Lewis 6-1 in its first round contest.
The Miners (24-31) trailed after the Flyers (36-14) scored in the opening inning, but
Bryn Wooldridge (Salisbury, Mo./Salisbury) held the fort until S&T got on the scoreboard itself in the fifth inning.
Lewis scored its run on a squeeze bunt by Anna Frefjord and held onto that lead until S&T came to bat in the fifth. The Miners missed on a good scoring chance in the fourth when they had two runners on base with two outs but couldn't cash it in, but pushed a run across with two outs in the fifth.
Charlye Rowland (Pearcy, Ark./Lake Hamilton) opened the inning with a hit and moved around to third on a sacrifice bunt and a deep fly ball, then
Elizabeth Viox (Glen Carbon, Ill./Edwardsville) hit a ball into the hole between third and short for an infield hit that brought Rowland home.
The Flyers replaced starting pitcher Allie Wondrasek with Delaney Garden to begin the sixth inning and she was greeting by a home run by
Sydney Anderson (Elkhart, IA/North Polk) to lead the inning of to put S&T into the lead. Lewis threatened in its half of the sixth after Jayln Powell singled to open the inning, but Wooldridge got two of her 11 strikeouts in the game to squelch that chance.
The Miners padded their lead in the seventh by sending 10 batters to the plate and scoring four times. The inning started with a walk to Rowland, then
Baylee Jobson (Marceline, Mo./Marceline RV) was hit by a pitch. Following a fielder's choice that put runners at the corners, Viox reached on an infield hit behind second that allowed Rowland to score and Wooldridge helped herself by slamming a double into the gap in right center that scored
Trista Grobe (DeSoto, MO/DeSoto) and Viox.
S&T got its fourth run of the inning on an RBI single by
Ty Neal (Enid, OK/Kremlin-Hilldale), then Wooldridge set the Flyers down in order in the seventh to lock up the win.
The Miners outhit the Flyers 9-5 in the contest as Viox, Anderson and
Natalie Cuadras (Huntington Beach, CA/Edison) all had two hits apiece. Wooldridge, who picked up her 14
th win of the season, allowed the five hits and walked none.
Missouri S&T is scheduled to face the winner of the Drury-Truman State game Friday, with a tentative start time of 6:30 p.m. The Drury-Truman contest was suspended prior to the start of the second inning Thursday due to weather and that game will resume at 9 a.m. on Friday.
