INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Facing the team that it defeated to win the Great Lakes Valley Conference championship five days ago, Missouri S&T fell in its opening contest at the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional Thursday as it lost 8-0 to top-seeded Indianapolis.
The second-ranked Greyhounds (54-4) scored two unearned runs with two outs in the first inning and then added to their lead throughout the afternoon, while Kenzee Smith kept the Miner offense silent after getting the two runs in the opening inning.
S&T (27-33) got a two-out single from
Bryn Wooldridge (Salisbury, Mo./Salisbury) in the first, but after she was stranded the Greyhounds parlayed three walks and an error into the two runs. UIndy had a runner on with two outs in the innings, but back-to-back walks to Lexy Rees and Braxton Downs loaded the bases and then an error on a ball hit by Shelby Cook allowed two runs to score to give the Greyhounds the lead.
Downs homered in her next at-bat to extend the lead to 3-0, then the Greyhounds broke the game open with a four-run fourth inning. The big blow of that inning was a run-scoring single by Emily O'Connor, with a subsequent throwing error on the play allowing her to come all the way around to score. Downs would end the game in the sixth with an RBI single.
In the meantime, the Miners were unable to generate much offense against Smith, who set down 12 in a row after Wooldridge's first inning single until walking
Baylee Jobson (Marceline, Mo./Marceline RV) in the fifth.
Wooldridge, who got the start in the circle for S&T, allowed five hits and three earned runs in her 3 2/3 innings of work and had five strikeouts.
Charlye Rowland (Pearcy, Ark./Lake Hamilton) pitched the final two innings for the Miners.
The Miners will return to the field Friday to take on Lewis at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time. If S&T wins, it will play again at 4 p.m.
